The estimates returned by two of the printing companies were:
- Dayton Legal Blank quoted 29¢ per ballot using Suffolk’s requirements. They gave an average price of 32¢ per ballot for other counties, depending on the variation and number of ballots being ordered.
- Print Comm quoted 14¢ per ballot for Suffolk County and 15.5¢ per ballot for New York City. Costs for shipping and handling are additional.
The formal estimates we received from these firms are in the Appendix A.
An Alternative: In-House Printing Using County Owned Digital Printers
An alternative to purchasing printed ballots is the use of in-house, county or regional printers that print scannable ballots. Such printers would not only lower ballot printing costs, they would also put the control of printing ballots with last minute ballot changes in the hands of local election boards.
New Yorkers for Verified Voting has found that two types of in-house printers, digital and ballot-on-demand, are presently in use by some optical scan counties. In our research, the counties using ballot-on-demand printers either had relatively small numbers of registered voters or were utilizing the printers only for specific applications, such as provisional ballots or early voting. Also, it has been reported that with more extensive use ballots from these printers are problematic when scanning. Therefore we focused on digital printers.
Currently, several manufacturers of digital printers are targeting the ballot market. Some are offering different models of basically the identical digital printer using a Heidelberg engine. These printers have the speed and quality required for printing numerous scannable ballots. Two models presently used for ballot printing are Kodak’s DigiMaster 4 and Canon’s imageRUNNER.5 While ES&S has approved both models for use with its optical scanner, printer vendors have said the printers may be used in conjunction with any optical scanner.
Both the DigiMaster and imageRUNNER are capable of printing from 55 to 75 two-sided ballots per minute, depending on the model utilized. Both also have the capacity to print ballots up to 14.33" x 18.5" in size and from 16lb. bond to 150lb. index in thickness. We obtained copies of the New York City ballot cited above which were printed on a DigiMaster using 80lb and 110lb weight paper with a one inch perforated stub. NYVV was told the cost of the actual printing is about 1¢ per ballot.6
This is confirmed by Nebraska’s Douglas County Commissioner Dave Phipps who told us, of the 9¢ it cost to print a ballot on the DigiMaster press, 8¢ of the cost was for the paper purchased from ES&S.7 Phipps, who previously purchased preprinted ballots from ES&S at 25¢ each for a two-sided 8.5" x 14" ballot, estimated that even at 9¢ a ballot, the digital printer would pay for itself in two elections. Douglas County has about 300,000 registered voters.
DigiMaster and imageRUNNER both have accessories for perforations and roll feeding, and non-perforated paper costs less than perforated paper. However, printer and paper companies have told us that it may be more convenient and almost as economical to purchase pre-perforated sheets of paper at the size needed by counties for current elections. Counties can explore which option is more suitable for their needs.
Ballot cost estimates for in-house printing
With this in mind, we obtained a price quote for the 8.5" x 15" 110lb index paper with a pre-perforated one-inch stub that would accommodate printing the New York City ballot. The cost of the paper, shrink-wrapped, in cartons shipped to Suffolk County was 4.6¢ a sheet, making the cost of printing the NYC ballot in-house under 6¢ a ballot.8
There is an existing New York State contract for four models of the Kodak’s DigiMaster, setting the price for the smallest, 110 images-per-minute printers at about $125,000 and the largest, 150 images-per-minute printers at approximately $215,000.
New York State Board of Election officials have said that HAVA funds may be used to purchase these printers if they meet New York State requirements. Large jurisdictions, like New York City, may want to use more than one printer while small, adjacent counties could combine funds to purchase a “regional” printer.
Other Benefits of in-house printing
Although cost may be the primary reason for utilizing in-house printing, Boards of Elections cite voting deadlines as another important factor. Douglas County had costly delays when absentee ballots from ES&S arrived later than promised, and, with the advent of no-excuse absentee voting in Ohio’s Summit County, officials there expressed concern for similar problems. Commissioner Phipps has found both issues are resolved by in-house printing.9
While maintenance costs of DRE systems are on the rise, 10 11 12 NYVV has found that annual expenses for optical scan ballots are declining. With more and more counties around the country using or adopting ballot scanning systems, printing companies and printer vendors are increasingly entering the market for ballot production, decreasing the prices and giving one more reason for counties to choose paper ballots and precinct based optical scan systems.
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