Elections Board chooses electronic pollbook provider

Voters in the Madison and Riverside school districts will get the first taste of Lake County’s new electronic pollbooks when they vote in the May primary election.

The Lake County Elections Board unanimously voted to select Tenex Software Solutions as its electronic pollbook provider. Countywide implementation of the new pollbooks is slated for the Nov. 7 general election.

Over the course of the past 1 ½ years, the board evaluated all Ohio-certified electronic pollbooks before selecting the Precinct Central Touchpad from the Tampa, Florida-based Tenex.

“Tenex participated in a very successful pilot project during our November 2015 General Election,” Elections Board Deputy Director Ross McDonald said in a statement. “The Ohio market of certified electronic pollbooks was competitive with a lot of great options, but ultimately Tenex rose to the top for us, which I think says a lot about the company.”

Director Jan Clair said that Cuyahoga County and Ashtabula County have also chosen electronic pollbooks from Tenex.

The Elections Board will purchase 225 of the Apple iPad Mini-based devices. Clair said the Apple products were a selling point.

“It’s very user friendly and easy to navigate,” Clair said, adding that the new pollbooks should make the voting process easier and more convenient.

The purchase of the pollbooks costs $294,360 with the state of Ohio footing $254,520.76 of that bill. In September 2015, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced about $12.7 million in funding (appropriated in the state’s biennial budget) to cover up to 85 percent of each county’s purchase cost.

Electronic poll books contain the entire county’s voter registration information and will replace the large, paper rosters of registered voters at each voting location.

Lake County’s Election Board officials said voters will not notice a big difference in the process: they still need to present a valid form of ID, but will now sign-in on the electronic pollbook instead of a paper roster.

They said the biggest change voters will notice is shorter wait times when they go to the polls to vote. The electronic pollbooks allow voters to pick the shortest check-in line at their assigned polling location, resulting in a faster voting process.