By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The third and final public demonstration of new voting systems for Ellis County was held Wednesday with poll workers and election staff.
The group in the county Administration Center commission chambers was much smaller than that at the first two presentations. Ellis County Clerk and Election Officer Donna Maskus attributed it to the extreme cold.
Josh King and Don Vopalensky did get out in the winter weather and drove to Hays. The two Kansas residents work for ElectionSource, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and showed their Dominion Voting Systems.
King talked about the extra security layer built in the precinct ballot counter, which requires both a USB key and a unique password.
“You have to have this little physical device and you have to know the password the county has chosen for that election,” explained King. “You can have it programmed to each specific machine or one for everyone. It’s all up to the county and how granular they want their security to be.”
The precinct counter, which holds 3,000 ballots and has a separate write-in ballot bin, costs approximately $5,000. The ADA compliant ICX touch screen voting booth prints ballots but does not tabulate. Its cost is about $3,000.
Ellis County must replace its aging iVotronic voting system in order to comply with a new Kansas statute requiring post-election audits done on paper. The iVotronic machines do not produce a paper ballot.
Maskus said all three companies are “excellent” and they each work with other counties in Kansas as well as other states.
Rooks County is using Election Source products.
During February presentations were also made by Adkins Election Services, Clinton, Mo., and Election Systems & Software (ES&S) of Omaha, Neb.
Each company showcased systems that would require less work by poll workers and put more responsibility on the voter.
“I’m very much considering that it will take less election board workers,” Maskus said. “Once that ballot is handed to the voter, the voter goes to the table, does their secret voting, and then comes to the machine and puts it in. If they choose to do the touch screen option, it will print a ballot and they will have to put it in the machine to be tabulated.”
The printed ballots will go into a ballot precinct counter which does the tabulations. Write-in ballots are also scanned, counted and printed.
“We’re going to be able to print reports and combine those results. It should be a faster process on election night and that is exciting to me,” she said with a smile.
Maskus has talked with several Kansas counties who are using the new systems which print and tabulate ballots and “they just love them. It’s less time and they say they feel so much better about them. It’s tabulating there in the machine and you don’t have that human error.”
Ellis County election board workers who’ve attended the presentations have also told Maskus the new systems look much easier to use. “They’re also looking forward to some new equipment.”
Whichever company is selected, it will provide training for the poll workers on the new system. “We want to be trained correctly and what to do if something happens to a machine or if the electricity goes off.”
The county budget has capital reserve set aside to purchase new machines as part of the election budget. Maskus will decide which system to go with after reviewing all three bids.
“I do want input from my staff, people who have attended the meetings, my board workers and supervisors, and the county commissioners. It’s a big dollar investment. We will review all that very thoroughly.”
“It’ll be great to have new equipment. There’ll be a learning curve but everybody is excited.”
Ellis County has 10 polling sites and 69 iVotronic machines.
Maskus expects to use the new equipment for the upcoming election in November and a possible primary election in August.