Schuylkill to buy paper ballots

Ouch. In addition to spending $1.6 million for new voting machines – an action the Schuylkill County Commissioners took earlier this month – the county also has to purchase paper ballots for the machines.

During a meeting Tuesday, the commissioners approved advertising for bids, to be received by 3 p.m. Jan. 13 and tentatively awarded Jan. 22.

After the meeting, County Administrator Gary Bender said that according to the state mandate, the number of ballots a county must purchase is based on the voter turnout for the 2016 presidential election. The county must purchase that number of ballots, plus 15% more.

During the 2016 presidential election, 62,750 people voted in Schuylkill County, which included 43,937 votes for President Donald Trump; 16,724 for Hillary Clinton; and 2,089 votes for other candidates. Adding 15% to that total equals 72,162 paper ballots.

In other action, the commissioners:

• Awarded a contract to TKO Cleaning Services, Pottsville, for cleaning the courthouse. The contract begins Jan. 1, 2020, and runs through Dec. 31, 2021, at a cost of $69,200 for the first year and $70,400 for the second year.

• Extended the recyclable materials supply agreement with Cougles Recycling Inc. of Hamburg. Cougles already had the contract, with the previous effective dates from June 1, 2019, through Nov. 30, 2019. The new agreement extends that contract to April 1, 2020, with the same rates, which is $60 a ton for paper and $20 a ton for plastics. The materials come from the county’s six drop-off recycling centers.

• Noted that the Prison Board Reorganizational meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8 in the Commissioners Board Room, to be followed at 10 a.m. with the commissioners reorganization meeting.