Brown County Commissioners approved Monday a request by Elections Administrator Suzy Young to purchase electronic voting equipment.
Young presented choices of bids from local businesses that ranged from $9,000-12,000 as compared to bids submitted directly from the vendor of the equipment which was much less at $6600. The funds for the equipment will come from the HAVA grant monies that were received by the county. This money has to be spent by December 31, 2011 and after the purchase of the voting equipment, will leave a balance of more than $23,500 according to Young. The remainder of the grant money will be used to purchase mapping software giving a database that can easily be accessed to help register voters.
In October of 2010, commissioners approved the purchase of software for these machines. Young stated she has been searching for the hardware to purchase before spending the money on the software that goes with it. This software purchase will cost of $8950, which was approved to also come from the HAVA grant monies.By updating the voting equipment, Young stated that she felt the voting process would become more efficient and accurate, especially if voter identification is passed in the legislature. The equipment is able to “swipe” driver’s licenses electronically to help register these voters rather than the manual handwritten procedure currently used.
Young also reported that the voting inspection that was performed in November found the Brown County Elections Office to be in compliance.
“The report was good, we passed with flying colors,” stated Young.
Other items on Monday’s Commissioners Court agenda were:
*Commissioners tabled consideration for approval of depository bids. An interest rate renegotiation is being sought by the commissioners with the current bidder.
*Commissioners approved a 20mph speed limit on Dublin Drive at Lake Brownwood.
*Brown County Sheriff’s Office received approval on employee changes.
*District Clerk Jan Brown received approval for the purchase of desks at the price of $4927 and filing cabinets for $6500. The desks purchase will be taken out of the records management fund and the filing cabinet purchase will be taken from the records preservation fund.
*Supplementation of administrative salaries for Valerie Williams and Jayme Madsen in connection with the Violence Against Women Act grant was tabled until next meeting to allow time to research where possible funding may be available. Grant monies have been exhausted for the administrative salary part of the grant; therefore, the county must now pay to continue the grant from April through June. If no funding is available in the county budget, Williams and Madsen will have the decision to continue to work on the grant at times 20 extra hours a week with no pay.
