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ANOKA COUNTY ELECTIONS AND VOTER REGISTRATION 325 East Main Street Anoka MN 55303 (763) 323-5275 (763) 422-7526 (fax) elections@ co.a noka. m n.us MEMORANDUM TO: Anoka County Management Committee FROM: Cindy Reichert, Anoka County Elections Manager SUBJECT: Joint Powers Agreement for Conduct of Elections DATE: November 13, 2012 A voting equipment system is comprised of many components that work together to define ballots, cast and count votes, report, transmit, and display election results, and produce election audit information. The system includes ballot counters, ballot boxes, ADA compliant ballot markers, various software and hardware programs, servers, modems, and other ancillary system components. The system currently in use in all precincts of Anoka County is the "Accuvote Precinct Optical Scan System" purchased in 2000 from Global Election Systems. That purchase was based on a shared ownership model and required each city in Anoka County to purchase ballot counters and ballot boxes for use in the city voting precincts. The County also purchased several ballot counters to use as back-ups should any of the city -owned equipment need replacement, and has since purchased several reconditioned ballot counters to ensure successful operation of elections through calendar year 2012. The county has continually maintained responsibility for components used county -wide, like system software, servers, and modems. The time has come to replace the system. The equipment and its software run in a DOS platform that is no longer supported, and new units and parts are no longer available in the marketplace. The most unstable component is our system server which also operates on a DOS platform. That server cannot be replaced and the software that drives the system will not run in a more modern environment. It is imperative that the entire voting equipment system be replaced at the earliest opportunity. Anoka County has been working toward a complete system replacement scheduled for early 2013. Our staff has collaborated with Election.Managers of several other MN Counties, and with the Office of the Secretary of State to determine our -needs and options. We've alsuprocured'grant funds issued through the Help America.Vote Act to partially offset the cost of the -replacement. Changes in election law, technology and equipment certification standards have affected not only the technology we use, but the business model of system vendors. As a result, costs have risen considerably. Our planning has required us to consider many factors and we've worked to engage our partner cities and school districts in discussion. The result is a proposal to enter into a Joint Powers Agreement which addresses not only the equipment purchase itself, but also establishes a model for delivery of election services within our county. Process for Proposal Development In 2010 County election staff organized the "ACE Work Group" comprised of city and school district election administrators. Together we performed a systematic examination of the processes, responsibilities and