What is the price of election integrity?
As an election judge in DuPage County, I took umbrage at a statement made by a DuPage County Board member regarding the purchase of new election equipment:
"Ultimately, the Hart system might be a good system, but to me, that's not the question. ... The question is about the price. Is the difference in why we selected it worth $1.6 million to $5 million more? And I just haven't heard that."
Perhaps the reason this politician "hasn't heard" the answer is because they, and their fellow cohorts in opposition, do not listen as they are presented facts by the professionals in the election division.
As stated many times in many meetings, the bottom line in the purchase of this equipment is not price.
It never has been.
The chosen system, Hart Inter-Civic, is the lowest RESPONSIBLE bid. Board members would know this if they would listen with intent to hear versus intent to rebut.
But I must ask: What is the price tag one places on the integrity of the election process in DuPage County?
I may be horrible at math, but even I can figure out that in a county the size of DuPage, the price difference works out to less than a dollar per voter over the span of 10 years, the length of the contract in question.
Someone said it was akin to 20 cents a voter per election. Are the voters and election workers of DuPage not worth two thin dimes?
Carol Jeanne Davis
Downers Grove