MOUNT VERNON — Elections are more technical and complicated than they used to be.
Add in unfunded mandates and capacity building, and you have four reasons why the Knox County Board of Elections wants to add another full-time employee.
“We have learned over time that as these unfunded mandates come in, they have been getting centralized with one person. And that’s bad,” BOE Board Member Jeff Gottke told the county commissioners on Tuesday.
Capacity building involves cross-training and redundancy of skills so that if one employee is out, another can step up and “meet the need of the voter at the counter.”
BOE Director James Blazer said the position is not strictly an IT position. Instead, it is an election technology specialist position in which the person is educated and trained in election and registration software and security.
“Security has become a big thing as far as meetings and understanding where our vulnerabilities are,” Blazer said.
“There are things that we look at constantly. That is something that is above and beyond what an IT function would be.”
Initial discussions focused on the county’s IT department supporting the BOE’s technical needs. However, County Administrator Jason Booth said that was unsustainable given the four-month election cycle.
“If we’re doing that twice a year, we can’t allocate out a resource to that,” he said. “So that’s why it’s back again to [the board] to ask for this position that’s dedicated just to their office.”
“We need someone to also be part of that security side of it,” Blazer explained.
“Rechecking is a constant. It’s not one time that you check it. We’re checking things daily because we have to assure something didn’t happen overnight.”
How will the BOE pay for the technology specialist?
Blazer said the department must call on a vendor because the BOE and IT lack the depth and specialization to support the technical work.
“That vendor costs $2,000 a day to have them on site, and the board has asked for that vendor to be on site during Election Day in case something happens,” he said.
“But having them there on the operational side for long periods of time doesn’t make financial sense and so it would be very, very expensive.”
Deputy Director Jack Goodman said the vendor visits at least three times per election cycle. Two Election Day visits cost $5,000 each.
Blazer said the goal is to reduce the $20,000 to $30,000 the BOE spends on vendor services to $4,000 or $5,000.
“One of the critical things is to make sure the ballots run the way they should and that every vote is going to be counted correctly. We test and test machines,” he said.
“We usually have vendors come out to make sure we have enough staffing and expertise in that. With this position we will no longer need them to do that.”
Goodman estimates a base salary of $60,000 for the tech specialist position. Booth said the new position could cost the county between $70,000 and $100,000 based on the benefit package the person selects.
Reduced vendor fees will help pay for the position.
Eliminating two permanent part-time positions in the BOE office will save another $59,644 annually to offset the cost.
Administrator Booth and Board of Elections officials will talk further to get more precise numbers.
Training and timeline
Goodman said the technology specialist would undergo a full day of training on the voter registration system from the vendor.
The specialist would then shadow the election process from the time candidates submit their petitions, gradually taking on tasks such as proofreading and checking data entry.
Blazer assured the commissioners there is plenty of work outside of the election cycle for the technology specialist.
