REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
August 22, 2023
FROM
STEPHENIE SHEA, Registrar of Voters
SUBJECT
Title
Amendment with KNOWiNK, LLC., for the Purchase of a Single Tenant Cloud Environment for the Electronic Poll Books
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Amendment No. 1 to Contract No. 19-696 with KNOWiNK, LLC., amending payment schedule for the purchase of a Single Tenant Cloud Environment, updating the contract language to include vendor duties relating to data management, increasing the contract amount by $3,441,000 from $7,140,534 to an amount not to exceed $10,581,534, and extending the term by five years, with a new term of October 22, 2019 through October 21, 2029.
(Presenter: Stephenie Shea, Registrar of Voters, 387-2100)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Operate in a Fiscally-Responsible and Business-Like Manner.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Approval of this recommendation will not result in the use of additional Discretionary General Funding (Net County Costs). Ongoing costs associated with Amendment No. 1 are currently funded within the Registrar of Voters (ROV) base allocation. Adequate appropriation was included in the ROV 2023-24 budget and will be included in future recommended budgets.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On October 22, 2019 (Item No. 39), the Board of Supervisors (Board) approved Contract No. 19-696 with KNOWiNK, LLC. (KNOWiNK), for the purchase of State-certified electronic poll books, in an amount not to exceed $7,140,534, for the five-year period of October 22, 2019 through October 21, 2024. This included software and hardware components, licensing, warranty, training, and election support services.
The poll books are certified and tested by the Secretary of State to uphold election security. The poll books serve as an electronic method to enable poll workers to efficiently check-in voters on election day, and to better identify the correct ballot type for each voter. The poll books are the only equipment connected to the internet to provide real-time check-in information at polling places, to support election security and curb voters voting multiple times. The election management system is not connected to the internet.
ROV currently operates under a cloud environment which, when overloaded, can result in slow communication between the poll books and the application hosted in the cloud environment. Approval of Amendment No. 1 will allow ROV to have a single tenant environment, which is designed to increase speed and the robustness of the system, allowing the poll pads to meet the demand requirements and increase responsiveness.
KNOWiNK has provided satisfactory customer service and support and ROV recommends the amendment to update the contract language to include vendor duties related to data management and to extend the term of the contract by five years, to October 21, 2029.
PROCUREMENT
Contract No. 19-696 is the result of a competitive procurement. On March 10, 2019 (Item No. 35), the Board approved the use of a formal, competitive Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) procurement process to select and purchase a State-certified replacement voting system. On March 28, 2019, ROV issued ITN No. ROV119-ROV3324 in conjunction with the Purchasing Agent. ROV received no proposals for electronic poll books. On July 17, 2019, ROV reissued ITN No. ROV120-ROV3459 for electronic poll books. The Department received proposals from the two State-certified vendors (KNOWiNK and Tenex Software Solutions, Inc.). The evaluation committee recommended KNOWiNK for a contract based on the overall best value to the County. Competitive procurement options will be considered at the time of renewal.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Jolena Grider, Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on July 24, 2023; Purchasing (Michelle Churchill, Supervising Buyer, 387-2070) on July 24, 2023; Finance (Elias Duenas, Administrative Analyst, 387-4378) on July 24, 2023; and County Finance and Administration (Valerie Clay, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on July 31, 2023.