The Pulaski County Election Board is getting some outside help with Election Day IT support. The county commissioners Tuesday approved a contract with IT Consultant Willie DeGroot for the May primary and November general elections.
The county will pay him a total of $5,000. Election Board Chair Jon Frain explained that money is in the election board’s budget. “When we made our budget, our vote center model for the state requires that we have a constant in place for this support,” he said. “At that time, we didn’t have someone, and I think that the rest of the election board and I, when we voted unanimously to bring this to you guys, the concern was, ‘What if we don’t have someone at one of our elections, than who are we going to get?'”
Matt Voltz has since been hired as the county’s full-time IT director, but Frain said he wasn’t sure that Voltz could handle the election work. Further complicating matters is the fact that both election days are holidays for Pulaski County employees.
Commissioner Jerry Locke wanted to talk to Voltz before making a decision, but Frain noted that time is running out to finalize plans for the May primary. “This was discussed and presented at the council budget hearing and then during our budget hearing,” Frain said. “We put it in, obviously, and then brought it here. It was discussed at our regular meeting, which nobody was at. Nobody comes to our meetings, at all, ever, except for the media. If we knew there were concerns, it would’ve been nice to have during our meeting. I think that’s probably the shared sentiment. I’m not trying to waste your time, and I don’t want to waste mine.”
The commissioners ended up approving the contract unanimously. Still, Commissioner Kenny Becker suggested having Voltz present on Election Day as well, so he might be able to help in the future.
