Agenda - Council - 04/10/1990 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Meeting Summary - Continued - Page 2 Commissioner McCarron informed the group that the county has set aside $82,000 of $164,000 to be accumulated by the county by the end of 1991. A question arose regarding the status of the state certification' .'iiiii'~/i'~ of the Unisys system. Commissioner McCarron quoted from a letter from Joe Mansky, Director of the State Election Division. Mr. Mansky .indicated that the certification will not be completed until probably the end of April or the beginning of May. Tom Durand form the Secretary of State's Office, told the group that although the certification is not complete, the Secretary of State's Office would be willing to allow experimental use of uncerti- fied equipment. Questions also came up about what the county costs would be for programming such a system, and what the vendor could promise for delivery dates. Commissioner McCarron passed out samples of the optical scan ballots used in the state's testing of the Unisys system. There was then some discussion of the wisdom of placing candidates names on the backs of ballots. ~, Commissioner Natalie Haas Steffen. brought up the question of whether the vendor would be willing to help with financing the system, especially for smaller municipalities. Commissioner Jim Kordiak raised a question regarding the type of tests to be performed on the equipment in the Georgia Tech independent testing. Apparently these are stress tests of the system. Coon Rapids Councilmembers Voss and Racutt expressed their wish to switch to optical scan at this time in order to 1.) Help the election judges, and 2.) Avoid having to use the system oft the first time in a presidential year. Mayor Marilyn Schultz of Ham Lake indicated that her community has been budgeting for the equipment, is dissatisfied with the current punch card system, and wishes to buy into the optical scan. Commissioner Margaret Langfeld said she thinks most'feel the current system is unacceptable,.and that this meeting indicates that the jurisdictions within the county are in the process of working out the details of changing systems. Sheriff Ken Wilkinson asked if it is possible for the county to adopt optical scan in phases and was told it is possible. Blaine Councilmember Stenstrom suggested that the county might look into leasing units to some of the smaller municipalities.