Hubbard County is upgrading its electronic poll books used during in-person voting.
E-poll books allow election judges to verify voters using iPads instead of bulky paper books.
The county board accepted a $7,380 quote from KNOWiNK, LLC of Saint Louis, Missouri for 24 iPads.
“We first started using these electronic poll pads, I believe it was 2018,” said Hubbard County Auditor-Treasurer Kay Rave.
Those original Generation 6 iPads will not be supported by the vendor for updates or security patches after 2024, so Rave asked to purchase Generation 9, which has more memory space. The iPads are $300 each.
Rave’s department is saving the county $3,240 by reusing the existing iPad cases.
“I think we can get some glue, an X-ACTO knife and redo the foam. With a little bit of work, we can save that money,” she said.
The life span of the new iPads is about six years, Rave said.
“We only use them in six of our largest precincts, but it does help greatly with our election administration and registration of those in-person voters. That makes the process a lot easier when we post voter history after the election. It’s almost an instant upload of that data, and that saves us a lot of time after the election,” Rave said.
The election judges are in favor of them as well, she added.
County commissioners Dave De La Hunt said the e-poll books are used in his precinct. “It’s pretty slick. It’s fast,” he said.
In other business, the county board did as follows:
- Approved the $18,400 quote from SkyNorth from Minneapolis for design and development of Hubbard County’s intranet.
- Accepted Ness Sealcoat Svc. of Bemidji’s quote of $19,116 to sealcoat and re-stripe the Hubbard County Law Enforcement Center and Hubbard County Government Center parking lots.
- Approved a right-of-way easement for Itasca-Mantrap Electric Cooperative in Akeley Township.
Shannon Geisen is editor of the Park Rapids Enterprise.
