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Election board moves toward computer touch screen voting

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By JEFF SCHULTZ

Voting in Porter County is on the brink of seeing a major technological shift as a majority of the Election Board favored implementing touch-screen voting at all polling locations this spring.

At the board’s meeting on Friday, Republican representative and Board President David Bengs along with Republican County Clerk Karen Martin voted yes to begin a new five-year contract with current vendor Electronic Systems and Software for $147,000 per year which includes the upgrades from paper ballots to ES&S’ state certified iVotronic touch-screen ballot devices and new software.

That would replace the current four-year contract with ES&S for $161,000 annually, which has been in effect for two years now, resulting in additional savings, Martin said. She said that the touch-screen devices would save $70,000 or so per year by not having to print ballots.

The board will present the contract to the County Commissioners in the near future for them to take bids and vote on the measure.

Abstaining from voting on the recommendation to the Commissioners on Friday was Katrina Spence, who was sitting in as proxy for the Election Board’s Democratic representative J.J. Stankiewicz.

ES&S Indiana Regional Manager Jeremy Burton said half of counties in the state use touch screen voting devices which had started to become available a little more than a decade ago. It is rapidly growing in other states, too, Burton said.

“It’s exploding across the country,” he said.

Burton said Porter County already owns the software to support the system and his company is willing to give the County a lower cost contract than the one already in place.

“We want to be a partner in saying the taxpayers money,” he said.

Martin has led a charge over the past year to do away with paper ballots and switch to electronic poll books and touch-screen devices “to reduce the amount of paper.” The board also explored ways to make the voting process easier for poll workers to prepare the polling place, such as not having to move heavy ballot counting machines.

Burton said the “iVotronic” touch-screen devices are easy to set up. They also carry features to give election administrators various pieces of data that paper ballots can’t, such as the rate of voter turnout and what time of day each voting location is busiest. Voting results can be printed once the polls are closed.

The voter will be able to sign into the system with the use of electronic poll books. Burton said that a driver’s license or government issued IDs will be scanned and only the poll worker will be able to see the information.

Describing its appearance, Burton said the iVotronic has “big, beautiful bright colored screens,” and ballots are displayed in large, readable fonts. There is also an audio ballot feature with Braille capabilities for persons with no or limited vision.

Martin said the board intends to have the machines operational in time for early absentee voting in April for the municipal primary elections.

Officers elected

In other business, the board voted 3-0 to keep the same officers as in 2014, with Bengs as president, Stankiewicz as vice-president, and Martin as secretary. Valparaiso attorney Ethan Lowe will remain as the board’s counsel.

Reynolds amends report

Also, the board accepted Sheriff Dave Reynolds’ amended campaign finance reports settling the complaint made days before the election last November by the Porter County GOP Chair Michael Simpson, who alleged Reynolds did not properly disclose the names of persons who had contributed to his campaign during a golf outing fundraiser, referring to a state law that requires candidates to disclose donors who give $100 or more.

Reynolds’ attorney Mitch Peters had previously called the complaint politically motivated and said that the allegations were made without merit.

Lowe said that the amended reports, which can be viewed on the County’s website under Elections, have adequately addressed the complaint.

According to the reports, Reynolds had the largest amount of total contributions and receipts in Porter County local races with a figure of $126,727 at the end of the year.

 

Posted 1/26/2015

 
 

 

 

 

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