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.