Sherburne County is investing in new technology to make elections run more smoothly.

 

At the last county board meeting, the commissioners approved the purchase of a Modus Elections Manger software package to help the county auditor/treasurer’s office coordinate all the activities and data associated with elections.

 

Michael Snuffer, CEO of Modus Elections Manager, gave the board a brief demonstration of the software.

 

“Sherburne County has five cities, 10 townships and 35 different polling places,” he said  “You have approximately 350 election judges that have to be hired, trained and coordinated. You have equipment needs to be provided to all these places. Everything has to be coordinated by county staff.”

 

Snuffer said the new software program helps train judges, coordinates training courses, verifies that the judges have received their training and provides certificates of training for each of the judges.

 

He said each of the 35 polling places needs to have equipment and make sure all the contact information is correct and that the judges and officials have access to the buildings.

 

The new system automatically generates polling place agreements. Snuffer said the system makes all the different steps simpler by coordinating everything into one database. 

 

“All this stuff is already happening. But it’s just a lot of spreadsheets, word documents and mail merges,” he said. “The county currently has dozens of spreadsheets with all the information. This brings all that information into one place.”

 

The system generates public notices automatically, helps track payroll to judges and has features that help with mapping.

 

“Customers say they like the facts that it’s a single database with increased efficiencies and time savings,” said Snuffer.

 

He said it typically  takes nine to12 months to plan an election. 

 

“These folks are already planning for the 2016 election. This is going to give them the tools they need to do that,” he said.

 

“Increased efficiency should mean savings in terms of time and labor,” said Commissioner Felix Schmiesing. “Are we going to be able to monitor that so we know that we’re getting the return on our investment?”

 

Kris Engel, Elections Manager with the auditor/treasurer’s office, said they would be keeping track of the cost savings.

 

“If this works as well as I hope, we may not need as many temporary workers,” she said. “Anoka County has given us very high recommendations. They’ve been using it since 2013  and they’ve had nothing but positive things to say.”

 

The board agreed to a one-year commitment for 2016 at the annual subscription rate of $8,950 plus a one-time training fee of $2,500.

 

If the county decides to renew the contract, the rate will increase by 3.5% in 2017.