2005-12-14 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNTY OF ANOKA Office of Elections & Voter Registration 325 East Main Street, Anoka MN 55303 PHONE: (783) 323-5275 FAX: (763) 422-7526 TDD/TTY: (763) 323-5289 ANOKA COUNTY DATE: November 30, 2005 FROM: Anoka County Municipal Clerks, Township Clerks, and School District Clerks Rachel Smith, Supervisor of Elections TO: SUBJECT: Status of HAVA voting Equipment for 2006 I am writing to give you an update on the status of the HA V A voting equipment. On November 3, 2005, the Seaetary of State's office announced that they concluded the state contract negotiations and awarded a state contract to ES&S. However, to date, no vendor has been certified in the State. At our last voting equipment workgroup, we discussed the option of using an upgrade to our existing equipment, Diebold OSX. Diebold is in the process of developing the equipment and we hoped it would be available for the 2006 elections. As a back-up, we discussed the option of using Diebold TSX along with our current precinct counters. We now understand that our first choice, the Diebold OSX will not be ready in time for the 2006 elections. We now have two options, we purchase ES&S voting equipment or we work to get the Diebold TSX option. If we purchase ES&S voting equipment, we would purchase new precinct counters (M1oos) and a HAVA voting assistance terminal (the Automark). We may also want to examine the purchase of just the Automark as a temporary solution for 2006. However, based upon our analysis of any choices we may have, it is my recommendation that we stay with our current vendor and use Diebold TSX through the 2006 elections. After 2006, we would then purchase the Diebold OSX when it became available in 2007-2008. In arriving at this decision, I reviewed the capital costs, programming, storage, maintenance, and training costs, and believe our option to remain with Diebold is far more economical. We are in the process of working on the financial impact for each city and hope to provide that information later today. One of the challenges of pursuing this option is that Diebold's TSX must receive State certification from the Minnesota Secretary of State's office. Throughout the past month, we have been working very diligently to ensure that the option of using the Diebold TSX would be available. However, yesterday, we received a letter stating that the Secretary of State's office denied certification. The financial impact of both the short and long-term costs required under the new State contract are