HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93011_1001 (2)Mattox said the Board of Elections had previously met and voted to recommend
the purchase of certified voting equipment from Diebold totaling $405,661 with no
county money being involved due to the availability of Help America Vote Act grant
funds. He said, originally, there were only two vendors approved by the state, and now,
in the past few days, Diebold had withdrawn from the process leaving Elections
Systems & Software (ES&S) as the sole voting equipment supplier for every county in
North Carolina. Mattox said Diebold had evidently dropped out due to a problem
involving intellectual property rights. (Microsoft runs most all of the programs.)
Mr. Mattox said, hopefully, Diebold would try to work through the problems, and again,
become a supplier. He said if this didn't happen, Iredell County could be faced with
costs ranging from 520,000 to 530,000 for upgrades on up to potentially $150,000 for
the certified equipment. Mattox said to further complicate the situation, the state was
requiring counties to have contracts by January 20. He said statewide uniformity in
elections was certainly needed; however, the state's action of narrowing the vendors
down to one or two made for a difficult situation. Mattox said he had concerns about
getting the equipment installed, and the staff trained, by the May primaries. He
requested for the matter to be deleted from the agenda, and he said the Board of
Elections and staff would try to have another request on the January 17 agenda.
Chairman Tice said the severity of the situation was understood, and a special
meeting would be called, if necessary, to aid the Board of Elections.
Commissioner Robertson asked for the commissioners to be informed of any
new developments between now and the January 17 meeting.
ADJOURNMENT: Following a brief review of the other agenda matters by
the staff, Chairman Tice at 5:50 p.m. adjourned the briefing session.
Approv _ dl -1711(f,
Clerk -to the Board