Grant County buys new vote counting software

EPHRATA — The Grant County Commission has approved $150,000 to purchase new vote counting software.

“The system we have is antiquated,” said Grant County Auditor Michele Jaderlund, who oversees the county’s elections.

Grant County currently counts ballots using Verity, a hardware/software system created by Austin, Texas-based Hart Intercivic. The current version of Verity is dependent on consumable program cards that the company no longer makes or supports, Jaderlund said.

“Once those cards are gone, we don’t know how many are left,” she said.

The system Grant County approved is an internet-based system with Clear Ballot, a Boston-based company which just won the contract to provide software for King County’s elections.

Jaderlund said the software system is safe, secure, transparent, and is compatible with more hardware than Verity was, which required proprietary scanners for ballots, for example.

“Hart wanted to give us the software for free but lock us into a 10-year service contract,” said Commissioner Richard Stevens. “At $23,000 a year, that’s more than the $150,000 Clear Ballot wanted.”

Stevens said Grant County purchased the contract as part of the King County deal, negating the need to put the matter out to bid.

Jaderlund said the new software system should be up and running sometime in early 2019. Her office had considered trying to get the system functional in time for this year’s November election, but Jaderlund decided a major election was not the time to break in a new software system.

“It would be better to run this the first time for a February election,” she said.

Jaderlund also said the new system will not change the look or the layout of Grant County’s ballots.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.