Clarion County Commissioners Ted Tharan, Wayne Brosius, and Ed Heasley on Tuesday accepted the recommendation from the current Clarion County Board of Elections to enter into an agreement with Dominion Voting Systems Inc. to supply Clarion County’s voting machines for approximately $650,000.00 in an eight-year lease.

Heasley said that when the voter selects candidates on the paper ballot, it is scanned into a machine, the results are tabulated on the machine, and the paper ballot deposited in a box. They can always re-count by opening that box.  Brosius added that those ballots will never even be looked at unless there is a problem or a recount.

“Dominion voting machines are used in other local counties such as Jefferson, Armstrong, and Crawford,” said Tharan.

Commissioners also had opportunities to view voting machines at conferences.

Normally, the commissioners are on the Election Board, but since this was an election year, three other individuals were appointed to the board. The Commissioners cannot return until the results of the entire November election are certified by the board.

The election results are not likely to be certified until later in December because of all the write-ins for local offices. Each candidate who receives the largest number of votes is contacted and told they must accept the position by December 13. For example, 16 people in Clarion Township received a write-in vote for auditor.

“The current board of elections made a decision because they’re still in charge — Nancy Kadunce, Karen Knepshield, and Judy Fiscus,” said Tharan. “The committee reviewed the various options, and this is the one they recommended.”

“The board gave us a 46-page report,” said Brosius. “And, we also looked at them and saw demos.”

Tharan said they were at the point where the County was running out of time, and the current board of elections could be serving until at least December 23.

The 442 machines use hand-marked paper ballots, and Heasley said one of the pluses was that Dominion uses Windows 10.

Janice Horner, representing the Clarion County League of Women Voters, thanked the commissioners for selecting Dominion.

“It’s an eight-year lease program, and the nice thing about a lease (is) if there are any updates or if there are any problems with the equipment, they will replace it,” said Tharan.  “If you buy it outright, then you have to pay for all those costs. If they are decertified or anything like that, we can get out of the lease.”

The Commonwealth is paying 60 percent of the costs, and there is a possibility of the federal government paying about $37,000.00. Some counties have already reported they have received that payment.

Tharan said the Commissioners were expecting to spend $900,000.00, so the new agreement was good news. Brosius added that the County can also negotiate a discount.

“It’s just the first offer, and we will meet with them again,” said Heasley. “The machine screens were better. I believe all five of the manufactures came in, and we had a chance to talk with four of them, and this is the one they liked the best. Once the contract is in operation, they are going to bring some machines up here, so people can see them, test them out, and work with them and be available for public review.

“Between now and spring, we have to negotiate the contract, get the equipment, we have to train the poll workers, we need to develop written procedures, and we need to initiate an education program for the registered voters. It’s a lot of work in the next couple of months.”

Another bonus is that Dominion will take all of the old equipment for free, and the other vendors wanted the county to dispose of it.