Supervisors Discuss Options On New Voting Machines 
 
Keota Eagle    08/19/2005 
       The Keokuk County Board of Supervisors met on Mon., Aug. 15 to discuss the options of purchasing different voting machines.

Christy Bates, Keokuk County Auditor, stated that she had received an e-mail from ES&S stating that they would let the county out of the lease agreement if the county would consider them for other machines that they carry and would not give the company any bad publicity. John Schroeder, Keokuk County Attorney stated that he feels that they need more of a legal document then an e-mail. Bates stated that she has requested one from the company and they have not sent her anything as of Monday morning. Bates stated that the machines that the county currently has are not ADA compliant. She stated that the county would have to purchase another machine and have two voting machines at each precinct.
 
      There are different machines available that are ADA compliant and the county is looking to obtain one of those. There is a machine called a DRE that is much closer to the old lever machines that do not require a paper trail and will save on costs for the county. Schroeder stated that there isn't much the county can do until they hear back from ES&S.

     The supervisors talked about their property taxes, they were concerned that the public will look at the bottom right hand corner and see that there is a percentage in bold that they will think is the increase in their taxes. Drew Sanders stated that number is just the percentage of increase of the overall taxes. To figure the increase of ones taxes, a person will have to take last year's total taxes and this year's total taxes and figure the difference and divide by last years total taxes to calculate the actual percentage of their increase in taxes.