Old county voting machines on the move By Tom Jeffery
Staff Writer
OTTAWA - Moving day brought smiles to the Putnam County Commissioners Tuesday afternoon at the old jail, in downtown Ottawa.
John Love, Vince Schroeder and Travis Jerwers rolled up their sleeves in 30 degree weather and went to work loading 126 iVotronic voting machines into a moving truck. Printers and miscellaneous parts were also part of the deal, which was finalized Feb. 25 with Union County Commissioners.
The purchase price is $34,000, according to commissioners.
"We have been working on this for around two years," said commissioner Love. "We have been trying to transfer ownership with the old voting machines, and the deal with Union County was finalized six days ago. We're happy about it, since the flood we have been required to store the equipment, and now we will have a lot of storage room in the old jail."
Love went on to say that it took more time than they would have liked to finalize the sale. Grant money was involved in the original sale of the voting machines, and when that occurs, there are requirements to follow.
In August, 2007, the office of the Putnam County Board of Elections was flooded while the county was eventually declared a state of emergency by the Ohio governor.
Most of the county's Election Systems and Software (ES&S) iVotronic voting machines, 109 in all, were destroyed in the flood while 34 were salvaged. The Putnam County Board of Elections has since purchased a new voting system, the ES&S precinct-based optical scan machines, with the proceeds from the county's flood insurance.
The iVotronic voting machines, which records votes on internal flash memory, were acquired with federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grant money.
"It certainly became a federal issue, and there were many channels to go through," Love said. "It has been time consuming but it's all worth it."
Union County is currently leasing 17 of the operational voting machines from Putnam County, in a deal that was finalized in September, 2008.
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