REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
December 7, 2021
FROM
BOB PAGE, Registrar of Voters
SUBJECT
Title
Agreement with K&H Printers, Inc. for Official Ballot Printing and Mailing Services
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Agreement with K&H Printers, Inc. for printing and mailing services of official ballots, in an amount not to exceed $22,000,000 for the period of January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2026.
(Presenter: Bob Page, 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 item does not require the use of any additional Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). A portion of the expenses associated with the printing and mailing of ballots are billed to jurisdictions that call for an election. Adequate appropriation and revenue have been included in Registrar of Voters’ (ROV) 2021-22 budget and will be included in future recommended budgets.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The recommended agreement will allow ROV to continue to provide official ballots to registered voters by mail and at voting locations during elections over the next five years. Contracting with K&H Printers, Inc. (K&H) aligns with the County and Chief Executive Officer’s goals and objectives to operate in a fiscally-responsible and business-like manner by allowing ROV to continue providing this service to the registered voters throughout San Bernardino County.
Since 2003, K&H has provided ROV with official ballot services, which comprises of the printing of all official election ballots including but not limited to ballots for polling places and early vote sites, as well as training and test ballots. K&H is also responsible for the printing and mailing of the vote-by-mail ballots, voter instructions and other necessary inserts.
State law requires ROV to mail a ballot to all active registered voters for all elections. This requirement started as urgency legislation in 2020 to ensure voters could cast ballots safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was extended for all elections in 2021. On September 27, 2021, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill No. 37, which extended the requirement for all elections after January 1, 2022. There are more than one million registered voters in the County, of which 77% are permanent mail ballot voters.
Approval of the recommendation will allow ROV to provide the mandated services to ensure all voters are able to cast a ballot.
PROCUREMENT
On June 17, 2021, a Request for Proposals (ROV121-ROV-4271) was released to solicit proposals for Official Ballot Printing and Mailing Services for a five-year contract period. ROV received proposals from two vendors:
|
Vendor |
Location |
|
K&H Print Solutions |
Everett, WA |
|
Integrated Voting Systems |
Dinuba, CA |
An evaluation team comprised of ROV and the County Library reviewed the proposals for cost, qualifications, experience, and technical review of the ability to provide this service. It was determined that K&H would be awarded the contract in the best interest of the County. The County notified the other proposer of the intent to award the contract to K&H and of the protest period. No protest was received within the 10 calendar day waiting period.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Jolena Grider, Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on November 5, 2021; Purchasing Department (Bruce Cole, Supervising Buyer, 387-2148) on November 5, 2021; Finance (Sofia Almeida, Administrative Analyst, 387-4378) on November 15, 2021; and County Finance and Administration (Valerie Clay, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on November 16, 2021.