County Council Approves Emergency Bid Items for Elections Authority

St. Charles County Council members questioned why two Election Authority bids were submitted as emergency bills weeks before the Feb. 7 presidential primary, but voted 5-1 to approve the bids Thursday morning.

A $360,000 bid was for election services, including printing about 275,000 ballots for all 2012 elections, awarded to Henry M. Adkins & Son. The second bid was for $30,250 for 121 personal digital assistants for election officials.

Elections Director Rich Chrismer said: “The reason for the emergency session is that procedures were not followed in my office to get the bid information to the county executive and to you all in a timely manner. It wasn’t done.

“I take responsibility, but procedures set in place by me that were followed in the past were not followed for this particular set of bids. There will be ramifications for the employees who were responsible,” Chrismer said.

Director of Finance Bob Schnur said he compared the bids to those received in 2008, the last time the county had a full slate of elections.

“We wanted to make sure we’re not paying a premium or being gouged by someone taking advantage of the fact that they’re the lone bidder,” Schnur said.

He said that for the same number of ballots, precincts and supplies, the bid on the 2012 proposal would come out to $58,080 versus $54,040 in 2008, a 7.5 percent increase.

For all election support services, the county spent $305,000 in 2008, and the cost is estimated to be $360,000 in 2012.

“I don’t really think there’s a big problem with escalating costs here,” Schnur said.

Cronin questioned if it is unusual for the Adkins bid to be 20 percent higher than the 2008 bid.

County Counsel Joann Leykam responded that the bid is not to exceed $360,000, so the amount could be less. If it exceeds $360,000 the council would have to approve the cost.

For the Palm Pilots, the cost per device from 2008 and 2012 was identical at $250 each. Schnur said the bid includes programming and training to use the devices.

Ward 1 Councilman Joe Cronin voted against accepting the bids. After the meeting, Cronin said he approved of the expenditure for election services, but questions the $30,250 for Palm Pilots.

“Anyone with a smartphone can get on the county website and look that information up,” Cronin said. “All they have to do is keep the website updated.”

He said the voter information is all public information. Voters already receive cards in the mail notifying them of their polling place, and the information is on the website.

Chrismer said the problem comes in when people do not notify the Election Authority when they move within the county and show up at the wrong polling place. He said about 20,000 people move within the county every 10 years and 70 percent of them do not notify the Election Authority.

If they vote in the wrong precinct, their vote is not counted, Chrismer said.

When asked if he contacted other companies to ask them to bid, Chrismer said it isn’t up to him to contact the companies. He said the bids were advertised in legal newspapers, and one company responded.

He also said only two companies are certified by the state of Missouri to print ballots and provide election services: Henry M. Adkins & Son and Elkins-Swyers Printing Co.