The Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of a BlueCrest, Inc. ballot sorting machine for the Elections Office on Tuesday after a brief discussion on the decision not to use a competitive bid process. 

The equipment will help handle the huge increase in vote-by-mail ballots the Elections Office processes, staff said. 

Before the pandemic, vote-by-mail ballots ranged from 20-40% of ballots cast. Now, vote-by-mail ballots are sent to every registered voter, and that type of ballot accounts for more than 80% of ballots cast each election.  

Santa Barbara County had processed more than 111,000 ballots as of Thursday, and about 92% of them were vote-by-mail ballots. 

The BlueCrest Elevate Vote By Mail Scanner and Sorter meets Secretary of State and federal requirements for ballot envelope processing, elections staff said. 

It costs about $300,000 plus annual maintenance and update costs. The current Agilis system is 12 years old and at the end of its service life, staff said. 

These processing machines are used to scan and sort incoming vote-by-mail ballots by the supervisorial district. They also look for damaged envelopes or missing signatures. Accompanying software, and people on computers in a back room at the Elections Office, check signatures to see if they match records. 

Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson pulled the purchase item off the consent calendar to discuss it at Tuesday’s meeting, saying he wants to make sure taxpayers are getting the best value. 

He had a bit of a back and forth with Elections Office staff who explained they need the waiver of competitive bidding because of previous approvals, elections timing, and an August deadline to spend grant money on the equipment. 

“The Agilis machine that’s currently in use was designed to handle about 40% vote-by-mail throughput and we are currently handling about 90%, so we are definitely using more volume on that machine,” said Matt Niblett, who does information technology work for the Elections Office. 

Nelson said he was satisfied the replacement machine was a good product, but is always concerned whenever departments want to make purchases without a competitive bidding process. 

“Ultimately this equipment is 12 years old,” Deputy Clerk-Recorder Melinda Greene said. Many other counties, including peer counties, are using this equipment and already vetted it, she noted. 

“There are a very limited number of vendors in the elections equipment space that have a National Association of State Procurement Officials and like agreements in place,” staff said. 

Supervisor Joan Hartmann asked if the new machine would make ballot processing faster, and Niblett said they anticipate it will. 

“The bottleneck processing ballots is our current Agilis machine,” he said. 

Hartmann said she thinks “delay gives people an opportunity to be uncertain about the results, so anything we can do to get results more quickly I think is positive.” 

The Elections Office is currently limited to using one printer for ballots, and switching to this equipment means more options for printing, Greene noted.  

Second District Supervisor Laura Capps said she agreed with Nelson that purchases outside the bidding process should be exceptions. 

County Executive Officer Mona Miyasato said she also agrees, and department heads recently met to talk about improving purchasing. 

Supervisors approved the purchase unanimously. 

The Elections Office is currently processing ballots for the June 2 primary election and released another update on Thursday.

Results have to be certified by July 2.