TITLE
Recommendation to receive City Clerk Department status report concerning procurement of a modern central count voting system; and authorize the City Clerk to take necessary actions to: [1] procure Hart InterCivic’s “Ballot Now” paper based voting system; and [2] retain the services of K and H Integrated Printing Solutions for mailing services and printing of official ballots, sample ballots and vote-by-mail
materials; and direct that the City Clerk report back to City Council on January 9, 2007, relative to final financing and contractual requirements necessary to procure a modern voting system and printing services.
DISCUSSION
With completion of the 2006 election cycle, the archaic condition of the City's voting system was fully exposed in several ways: lack of precinct level over/under-vote protection, lack of modern tally system, problematic sample ballot printing, and problematic vendor support of absentee mailing in April 2006. If we are to maintain and improve the integrity of the voting process, these shortcomings should no longer be accepted.
On August 22, 2006, the City Council tasked the Elections Oversight Committee (EOC) to discuss voting system alternatives and to conduct voting system demonstrations.
As a part of its deliberations, and in conjunction with vendor demonstrations by Hart InterCivic, Sequoia Voting Systems, Martin and Chapman, Vote Here Inc., and the Los Angeles County Registrar, the EOC considered these five alternatives:
1. Continued use of Martin & Chapman's "Opto-Mark", if the vendor can offer system enhancements, e.g., ballot bar codes and Internet reporting.
2. Purchase of a Modern Central Count System;
3. Lease Use of the RRCC InkA Vote Plus;
4. Purchase of a City Owned Precinct Level Ballot Counting System;
5. Conduct of Citywide mail ballot elections.
As a result of its deliberations during three meetings in September 2006, the EOC concluded that none of the five alternatives could be recommended until a decisi...
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