Briefing
Georgia State Election Technology Acquisition
A Reality Check
Prepared By:

Edward Perez
Global Director
Technology Development
With a Preface Comment By:
Gregory A. Miller
Co-Founder

March 2019

Preface
Election technology infrastructure—America’s digital process and platforms of democracy
administration in the digital age—is a sector of critical infrastructure. Protecting the sovereign
act of public elections is a matter of defending democracy. Therefore, the Institute believes the
acquisition, implementation, operation, and protection of election and voting systems, services,
and directly related technology is a matter of national security not to be taken lightly. Cyberterrorism directed at disrupting our sovereignty — and the sovereignty of all democracies
worldwide — compels pragmatic intellectual honesty about equipment acquisition. All parties to
such transactions have an imperative duty to focus first on acquisitions that maximize security
and integrity, lower costs for taxpayers, and ensure that elections conducted on such equipment
are verifiable, accurate, secure and transparent in process.
When the Institute observes unusual deviation from this compelled practice, it must be called
out and examined. The State of Georgia’s current legislation and efforts to acquire new voting
technology for the 2020 election is emerging as a one such case that cannot and should not be
ignored. The Institute’s Global Director of Technology Development, Edward Perez, himself a
fifteen year veteran of the commercial voting and election administration technology industry,
recently noted the extent to which the Georgia Secretary of State’s Elections Division is
proceeding to drive a specific acquisition that defies the logic and warnings of the super majority
of computer scientists, election technology and security experts, and election integrity
professionals. Why is that? Mr. Perez produced an analysis in the Briefing that suggests there is
very good reason to ask. The analysis presented in the Briefing is very likely to also be useful for
other jurisdictions around the nation, as it contains relevant price estimates for voting
technology available in the marketplace today, as well as a repeatable methodology that can be
used by election officials and stakeholders in other states.

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 Overview
At the outset, it is important to contextualize Edward Perez’s work in preparing this Briefing
given his highly relevant credentials. Mr. Perez has deep experience in precisely the type of
complex financial modeling required for voting system solutions. As a former Director of
Product Management and also Manager of Professional Services for one of the three major
commercial vendors, Mr. Perez regularly provided support for Request For Proposal (RFP)
responses for major procurements of election technology, which required a strong
understanding of solution architecture, contractual terms and requirements, and industrystandard terminology and practices. Moreover, Mr. Perez has and continues to perform
competitive intelligence research, which has enabled him to become very familiar with product
features, pricing, and service practices associated with all of the major vendors. In sum, he is
uniquely qualified to provide a pragmatic, and intellectually honest analysis of what a statewide
implementation for voting technology requires.
It is equally important to note the Institute has no stake in the outcomes in Georgia, other than
exercising its mission to help ensure the public interest in this decision that will materially affect
the integrity of Georgia elections, and therefore inevitably affect national election.
As is the case with virtually any cost analysis, estimates are just that: estimates. However, all
information provided herein is based on publicly available data. The Institute makes no specific
claims or representation about any specific voting system or vendor.
The objective is to provide a comparison of estimated costs to implement a hand-marked paper
ballot system, with only a select number of accessible ballot marking devices for voters with
disabilities (hereinafter, a “HMPB” system), versus an all Ballot Marking Device system
(hereinafter, “BMD”), based on factual evidence and working assumptions that can be clearly
and transparently presented. Others, especially opponents of this analysis, will quibble with
some of the assumptions, as is typical in all estimation exercises; however, the Institute is
confident that this information can nevertheless advance the dialogue by providing a more
complete good-faith picture of costs than has been previously available from other sources.
Situational Analysis
The Institute appreciates that there are a couple of principal means for evaluating alternative
bids in an RFP process: Least Cost Method (“LCM”) and Value Based Assessment (“VBA”). The
former is a more objective measure of effective taxpayer dollar spending, while the latter can
introduce some subjectivity, although the Institute argues that even in VBA metrics can be
applied to minimize subjectivity. The analysis in this Briefing is based on costs because that is
the basis the State of Georgia has used to make its case for the system of its choice, and without
more explanation from the State, the numbers presented do not appear to be transparently
presenting to Georgia taxpayers the entire story in our professional opinion.
At the time of this writing, the Georgia Legislature is currently considering HB 316, which
contains provisions (among others) for a statewide voting system using electronic ballot
marking devices (BMDs) for all voters. HB 316 has already passed the Georgia House of
Representatives, and will be considered next on the floor of the Georgia Senate.

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2

 The distinction between HMPB systems versus all-BMD voting systems has become central to
the still-developing Georgia story. On February 26, 2019, the Georgia Secretary of State (SOS)
Elections Division took the unusual step of proactively posting on its official government web
site the results of a claimed “comprehensive inquiry into the cost of implementing a handmarked paper ballot system for the State of Georgia.”
The internal inquiry, conducted by Georgia Director of Elections, unfortunately raises questions
about its methodology and conclusions. Based on over 15-years’ experience with the
procurement analyses of election technology, the author of this Briefing observes that the GA
State Secretary’s two-page memo appears to contain incomplete information to estimate costs,
as well as questionable assumptions about printing paper ballots. Most importantly, the memo
is completely silent on costs associated with an all-BMD implementation, and makes no effort to
compare those costs with an implementation that combines hand-marked paper ballots with a
select number of accessible ballot marking devices for voters with disabilities.
With this information as background, the OSET Institute presents a detailed analysis and total
cost estimate for the State of Georgia to acquire and use a HMPB system versus an all-BMD
system over a period of 10 years. This analysis includes two models for HMPB systems:
“moderate” ballot printing, and “high” ballot printing, in addition to the costs associated with an
all-BMD implementation.
The OSET Institute analysis concludes that over a 10-year period, both the “moderate” and
“high” printing models associated with the implementation of a HMPB system are less costly
than an all-BMD implementation.
The analysis is based on a detailed summation of costs associated with hardware, software,
project management, training, installation, annual maintenance and license fees, and
consumables such as paper ballots and thermal-print summary cards. In this Briefing we
provide the summary, with an Appendix containing the models, assumptions, and a copy of the
GA Director Elections Memo.

The Georgia Director of Elections Memo
In February 2019, the Georgia Director of Elections wrote to State Secretary Brad Raffensperger,
“Some in the legislature have advocated for a Hand Marked Paper Ballot solution for
our new statewide, uniform system. As part of our due diligence, your staff has worked
to analyze available data to ascertain the costs of implementing such a solution.”
The OSET Institute makes the following observations about this memo:
1. The memo selectively includes costs seemingly unrelated to the voting system purchase,
without explanation. For example, the cost summary includes $9.6 million associated
with electronic poll books, which are strictly speaking separate from a voting system
purchase. Furthermore, a line-item cost associated with poll books would also be
applicable to an all-BMD implementation. It is unclear why this line item is included in
the cost table for a HMPB voting system implementation.

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3

 2. Meanwhile, the memo also selectively excludes important costs. The memo
acknowledges, for example, that the cost table does not include annual maintenance fees
and license fees, which would be significantly less costly in a HMPB implementation, and
significantly more costly in an all-BMD solution, by virtue of the relatively low and high
number of devices, respectively. It is unclear why the memo is silent on this point.
3. The memo does not explain why the Director of Elections has assumed $0.55 per preprinted ballot, nor the comment that “$0.55 is believed by our office to likely be on the
low side.” Here is settled knowledge on this point: The per-unit cost of pre-printed
ballots usually reflects a bundled combination of “raw” printing costs (i.e., paper and
printing press) plus, in many cases, the cost of vendor ballot programming services to
input data and produce the ballot layout. To cite an example, one major vendor indicates
that the base printing rate for 14 inch to 17 inch ballots is $0.21 each, plus $0.02 for
folding.1 Accounting for the cost of ballot programming services in addition to printing,
the Institute’s analysis, again, based on experience, estimates a base rate closer to $0.40
per printed ballot.
4. It appears unrealistic for the Director of Elections to assume that for statewide elections,
over 8.5 million ballots (i.e., 120% of the assumed 7.1 million registered voters) would
be printed for each ballot style, for each election. Using these assumptions, the Director
of Elections forecasts that a total of 25.56 million ballots (8.52 million ballots x 3 ballot
styles) would need to be pre-printed to support statewide primary elections that have
historically totaled approximately 1 million to 1.3 million ballots cast. This 20x
multiplier is only one glaring example of how questionable assumptions about ballot
printing costs unduly and incredibly inflate the Director’s estimates. For purposes of the
Institute’s analysis, we have, relying on direct experience, made more realistic
assumptions based on historical turnout, 2 including upward adjustments to account for
voter registration growth and ballot spoilage.
5. The Elections Division memo also excludes comparisons with the estimated costs for an
all-BMD implementation. From direct experience, the author of this Briefing asserts
that a BMD based system incurs significantly higher costs for acceptance testing,
installation, hardware maintenance, and software licensing fees due to vastly higher
numbers of voting devices (30,500 total in an all-BMD implementation, versus 8,230 in
a HMPB implementation). This oversight alone deserves more scrutiny.

The Institute’s Approach
The OSET Institute developed cost estimation summaries for different system implementations
based on industry-standard terms and practices. More specifically, the conclusion on the next
page and the Appendix reflect a summation of the following elements:

1

2

See p. 19,
www.jeffcomo.org/uploads/Purchasing/Invitation%20for%20Bid%202017/Bid%20Tabulation/BID%20TABULA
TION%20-%20ELECTION%20VOTING%20TABULATION%20EQUIPMENT.pdf
Georgia Secretary of State, Current and Past Election Results,
sos.ga.gov/index.php/Elections/current_and_past_elections_results/

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 1. Year 1 fees associated with acquisition of hardware and software, implementation
services, and first-use Election Day support
2. Years 2 through 10 fees associated with ongoing maintenance and license fees; and
3. Years 2 through 10 costs associated with consumables such as ballot printing, or use of
thermal paper to print “summary cards” from BMDs
To populate this model, the Institute made some necessary assumptions:
•

The same quantities of devices used in Election Director’s memo, wherever applicable;

•

Hardware, software and services similar to those specified in a major vendor’s response
to the Georgia SAFE Commission Request for Information (RFI), dated August 24,
2018;3 and

•

Turnout in accordance with State of Georgia historical records for total ballots cast in
various types of statewide elections.

Furthermore, two models were run for the HMPB implementation:
•

A “moderate” model, assuming numbers of ballots cast based on historical records, and

•

A “high” model, to exercise the most extreme limits of ballot printing, which would, in
turn, result in the highest estimate for a HMPB ballot implementation.

Important Note: The HMPB “high” model is not realistic, as it assumes 25 million ballots
printed for general primary elections that have historically garnered approximately 1.3
million ballots cast. The purpose of including the “high” model was to test whether the cost
of even the most demanding HMPB implementation would exceed the cost of an all-BMD
implementation.
All of the OSET Institute’s assumptions are completely identified in Assumptions and
References, in the Appendix. All data provided herein is based on publicly available
information, and the Institute makes no specific claims or representation about any specific
voting system or vendor.

Conclusion – Estimated 10-Year Costs
HMPB implementation with “moderate” ballot printing:............................................$112,672,986
HMPB implementation with “high” ballot printing: ................................................... $181,762,986
All-BMD implementation with on-demand thermal card printing: ........................... $203,296,732

3

Election Systems & Software, Response to State of Georgia Electronic Request for Information, New Voting
System, Event Number 47800-SOS0000035, August 24, 2018.

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5

 Appendix
Assumptions & References
HMPB Implementation Device Quantities
•

3,500 polling place scanners based on GA SOS quantities

•

4,730 BMDs for ADA-only based on GA SOS quantities

•

163 central scanners (for absentee processing) based on GA SOS quantities

•

163 EMS software licenses based on GA SOS quantities

All-BMD Implementation Device Quantities
•

27,000 BMDs based on Georgia SAFE Commission RFI (27,000 DREs currently)

•

3,500 polling place scanners based on GA SOS quantities

•

163 central scanners (for absentee processing) based on GA SOS quantities

•

163 EMS software licenses based on GA SOS quantities

Items Common to All Voting Models
•

All voting device prices reflect list pricing, without discounts. (Note: Discounts are
common in the voting technology industry, and the OSET Institute estimates that with
discounts, polling place scanners might be approximately $5,500 each, and ballot
marking devices might be approximately $3,000 each.)

•

Project management & training based on industry estimates.

•

The following items are based on a publicly-available major vendor’s response to State of
Georgia Electronic Request for Information, New Voting System, Event Number
47800-SOS0000035, August 24, 2018.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

•

Hardware installation fees
Onsite support fees
Polling place scanner maintenance
BMD maintenance
Central scanner maintenance
Polling place software license fee
BMD software license fee
Central scanner software license fee
EMS software license fee

License fees increase annually, as is the common industry practice. The percentage is
based on "not to exceed" industry estimates.

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6

 Ballot Printing Costs
•

Unit costs are based on industry pricing starting at $0.20 per sheet, plus additional cost
for vendor ballot programming services (i.e. data input, ballot layout, etc.).

•

Ballot printing costs increase over the 10-year period to reflect inflation.

•

"Moderate" HMPB ballot printing estimates are based on generous upward adjustments
from Georgia statewide historical results of total ballots cast, including voter registration
growth between election cycles.

•

"High" HMPB estimates are based on printing for 120% of 7.1 million registered voters,
for every election, with x2 for Presidential Preference Primaries, and x3 for General
Primary elections. (Note: Historical records for total ballots cast are actually far less
than the calculated numbers of ballots printed.)

•

Ballot printing costs are based on regular election cycles only, as runoff elections are
difficult to predict and have historically generated relatively low numbers of total ballots
cast.

BMD Thermal Cards
•

Thermal card stock is available in lengths from 11" long to 19" long, and the per card
price ranges from $0.09 for 11" to $0.12 for 11". To accommodate a variety of ballot styles
across different elections, ranging from short to long, this analysis assumes $0.10 per
card.

•

Thermal card prices increase over the 10-year period to reflect inflation.

•

Numbers of cards printed in each election assumes voter registration growth between
election cycles.

•

Unlike pre-printed ballots, on-demand printing assumes lower spoilage rates.

References
1. Election Systems & Software, Response to State of Georgia Electronic Request for
Information, New Voting System, Event Number 47800-SOS0000035, August 24,
2018. 
2. Georgia Secretary of State, Current and Past Election Results,
http://sos.ga.gov/index.php/Elections/current_and_past_elections_results
3. Harvey, Chris (Georgia Director of Elections), Memorandum to Brad Raffensperger,
(Georgia Secretary of State), Statewide Voting System Pre-Printed Hand-Marked Ballot
Solution, February 25, 2019

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7

 Estimate No. 1: HMB Moderate
Hand-marked paper ballots (optical scan + ballot marking devices for ADA only)
Moderate Printing Estimate
Year 1 Hardware, Software, Support
Line Items
Polling place scanner
Ballot marking device (for ADA only)
Central scanning device
Election Management Software (EMS) counties
Election Management Software (EMS) - state
Hardware installation for polling place scanners
Hardware installation for ADA BMDs
Hardware installation for central scanners
EMS installation
Proj mgmt., acceptance and training days
Onsite support for Election Day

Quantity
3,500
4,730
163
163

Unit Cost
$5,800
$3,500
$40,000
$30,000

Total Cost
$20,300,000
$16,555,000
$6,520,000
$4,890,000

1
3,500
4,730
163
163
200
163

$50,000
$115
$105
$1,000
$2,250
$1,700
$4,700

$50,000
$402,500
$496,650
$163,000
$366,750
$340,000
$766,100

TOTAL - Year 1 Hardware, Software, Support

$50,850,000

Annual maintenance and software license fees - Year 2
Line Items
Polling place scanner maintenance
BMD maintenance
Central scanner maintenance
Polling place scanner SW license fee
BMD SW license fee
Central scanner SW license fee
EMS SW license fee - counties
EMS SW license fee - state

Quantity
3,500
4,730
163
3,500
4,730
163
163
1

Unit Cost
$110
$75
$1,900
$80
$65
$1,575
$8,000
$50,000

Total Cost
$385,000
$354,750
$309,700
$280,000
$307,450
$256,725
$1,304,000
$50,000

TOTAL - Year 2 Maintenance and License Fees

$3,247,625

Year 3 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 4 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 5 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 6 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 7 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 8 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 9 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 10 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase

$3,361,292
$3,478,937
$3,600,700
$3,726,724
$3,857,160
$3,992,160
$4,131,886
$4,276,502

TOTAL - Years 2 thru 10 Maintenance and License Fees

$33,672,986

Consumable Costs - Ballot Printing - MODERATE, based on upward adjustments from historical ballots cast
Election
2020 Presidential Preference Primary (Mar)
2020 General Primary (May)
2020 Presidential General (Nov)
2022 General Primary (May)
2022 General (Nov)
2024 Presidential Preference Primary (Mar)
2024 General Primary (May)
2024 Presidential General (Nov)
2026 General Primary (May)
2026 General (Nov)
2028 Presidential Preference Primary (Mar)
2028 General Primary (May)
2028 Presidential General (Nov)

Ballots Printed
3,500,000
2,500,000
6,500,000
3,000,000
6,000,000
4,000,000
3,500,000
7,000,000
4,000,000
6,500,000
4,500,000
4,500,000
8,000,000

Unit Cost
$0.40
$0.40
$0.40
$0.42
$0.42
$0.44
$0.44
$0.44
$0.46
$0.46
$0.48
$0.48
$0.48

TOTAL - Ballot Printing Costs

Total Cost
$1,400,000
$1,000,000
$2,600,000
$1,260,000
$2,520,000
$1,760,000
$1,540,000
$3,080,000
$1,840,000
$2,990,000
$2,160,000
$2,160,000
$3,840,000
$28,150,000

GRAND TOTAL - HMPB MODERATE COST OVER 10 YEARS

$112,672,986

Year 1 HW, SW, Support + Year 2-10 Maintenance and License + Ballot Printing
* Storage and transportation costs are not included for 3,500 scanners and 4,730 BMDs

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 Estimate No. 2: HMB High
Hand-marked paper ballots (optical scan + ballot marking devices for ADA only)
High Printing Estimate
Year 1 Hardware, Software, Support
Line Items
Polling place scanner
Ballot marking device (for ADA only)
Central scanning device
Election Management Software (EMS) - counties
Election Management Software (EMS) - state
Hardware installation for polling place scanners
Hardware installation for ADA BMDs
Hardware installation for central scanners
EMS installation
Proj mgmt., acceptance and training days
Onsite support for Election Day

Quantity
3,500
4,730
163
163
1
3,500
4,730
163
163
200
163

Unit Cost
$5,800
$3,500
$40,000
$30,000
$50,000
$115
$105
$1,000
$2,250
$1,700
$4,700

TOTAL - Year 1 Hardware, Software, Support

Total Cost
$20,300,000
$16,555,000
$6,520,000
$4,890,000
$50,000
$402,500
$496,650
$163,000
$366,750
$340,000
$766,100
$50,850,000

Annual maintenance and software license fees - Year 2
Line Items
Polling place scanner maintenance
BMD maintenance
Central scanner maintenance
Polling place scanner SW license fee
BMD SW license fee
Central scanner SW license fee
EMS SW license fee - counties
EMS SW license fee - state

Quantity
3,500
4,730
163
3,500
4,730
163
163
1

Unit Cost
$110
$75
$1,900
$80
$65
$1,575
$8,000
$50,000

Total Cost
$385,000
$354,750
$309,700
$280,000
$307,450
$256,725
$1,304,000
$50,000

TOTAL - Year 2 Maintenance and License Fees

$3,247,625

Year 3 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 4 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 5 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 6 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 7 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 8 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 9 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 10 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase

$3,361,292
$3,478,937
$3,600,700
$3,726,724
$3,857,160
$3,992,160
$4,131,886
$4,276,502

TOTAL - Years 2 thru 10 Maintenance and License Fees

$33,672,986

Consumable Costs - Ballot Printing - HIGH, based on printing for 120% of 7.1M voters
Election
2020 Presidential Preference Primary (Mar)
2020 General Primary (May)
2020 Presidential General (Nov)
2022 General Primary (May)
2022 General (Nov)
2024 Presidential Preference Primary (Mar)
2024 General Primary (May)
2024 Presidential General (Nov)
2026 General Primary (May)
2026 General (Nov)
2028 Presidential Preference Primary (Mar)
2028 General Primary (May)
2028 Presidential General (Nov)

Ballots Printed
17,000,000
25,500,000
8,500,000
25,500,000
8,500,000
17,000,000
25,500,000
8,500,000
25,500,000
8,500,000
17,000,000
25,500,000
8,500,000

Unit Cost
$0.40
$0.40
$0.40
$0.42
$0.42
$0.44
$0.44
$0.44
$0.46
$0.46
$0.48
$0.48
$0.48

TOTAL - Ballot Printing Costs

Total Cost
$6,800,000
$10,200,000
$3,400,000
$10,710,000
$3,570,000
$7,480,000
$11,220,000
$3,740,000
$11,730,000
$3,910,000
$8,160,000
$12,240,000
$4,080,000
$97,240,000

GRAND TOTAL - HMPB HIGH COST OVER 10 YEARS

$181,762,986

Year 1 HW, SW, Support + Year 2-10 Maintenance and License + Ballot Printing
* Storage and transportation costs are not included for 3,500 scanners and 4,730 BMDs

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9

 Estimate No. 3: All BMD
Touchscreen ballot marking devices (BMDs) for all voters
First Year Hardware and Software
Line Items
Polling place scanner
Ballot marking device (for all voters)
Central scanning device
Election Management Software (EMS) counties
Election Management Software (EMS) state
Hardware install for polling place scanners
Hardware installation for ADA BMDs
Hardware installation for central scanners
EMS installation
Proj mgmt., acceptance and training days
Onsite support for Election Day

Quantity
3,500
27,000
163

Unit Cost
$5,800
$3,500
$40,000

Total Cost
$20,300,000
$94,500,000
$6,520,000

163

$30,000

$4,890,000

1
3,500
27,000
163
163
400
163

$50,000
$115
$105
$1,000
$2,250
$1,700
$4,700

$50,000
$402,500
$2,835,000
$163,000
$366,750
$680,000
$766,100

TOTAL - Year 1 Hardware, Software, Support

$131,473,350

Annual maintenance and software license fees - Year 2
Line Items
Polling place scanner maintenance
BMD maintenance
Central scanner maintenance
Polling place scanner SW license fee
BMD SW license fee
Central scanner SW license fee
EMS SW license fee - counties
EMS SW license fee - state

Quantity
3,500
27,000
163
3,500
27,000
163
163
1

Unit Cost
$110
$75
$1,900
$80
$65
$1,575
$8,000
$50,000

Total Cost
$385,000
$2,025,000
$309,700
$280,000
$1,755,000
$256,725
$1,304,000
$50,000

TOTAL - Year 2 Maintenance and License Fees

$6,365,425

Year 3 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 4 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 5 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 6 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 7 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 8 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 9 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase
Year 10 Maintenance and License Fees @3.5% annual increase

$6,588,215
$6,818,802
$7,057,460
$7,304,472
$7,560,128
$7,824,733
$8,098,598
$8,382,049

TOTAL - Years 2 thru 10 Maintenance and License Fees

$65,999,882

Consumable costs - On-Demand Thermal Card Printing for BMD devices
Election
2020 Presidential Preference Primary (Mar)
2020 General Primary (May)
2020 Presidential General (Nov)
2022 General Primary (May)
2022 General (Nov)
2024 Presidential Preference Primary (Mar)
2024 General Primary (May)
2024 Presidential General (Nov)
2026 General Primary (May)
2026 General (Nov)
2028 Presidential Preference Primary (Mar)
2028 General Primary (May)
2028 Presidential General (Nov)

Cards printed
2,100,000
900,000
5,000,000
1,200,000
4,400,000
2,400,000
1,400,000
5,625,000
1,575,000
5,000,000
2,700,000
1,800,000
6,500,000

TOTAL - Thermal Card Printing Costs

Unit Cost
$0.10
$0.10
$0.10
$0.12
$0.12
$0.14
$0.14
$0.14
$0.16
$0.16
$0.18
$0.18
$0.18

Total Cost
$210,000
$90,000
$500,000
$144,000
$528,000
$336,000
$196,000
$787,500
$252,000
$800,000
$486,000
$324,000
$1,170,000
$5,823,500

GRAND TOTAL - ALL-BMD COST OVER 10 YEARS

$203,296,732

Year 1 HW, SW, Support + Year 2-10 Maintenance and License + On-Demand Thermal Card Printing
* Storage and transportation costs are not included for 27,000 BMDs and 3,500 scanners

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10

 Exhibit 1: Georgia State Director of Elections Memo

Memo
To:

Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State

From:

Chris Harvey

cc:

Jordan Fuchs, Deputy Secretary of State

Date:

2/25/2019

Re:

Statewide Voting System Pre-printed Hand-Marked Ballot Solution

Some in the legislature have advocated for a Hand Marked Paper Ballot solution for our new
statewide, uniform system. As part of our due diligence, your staff has worked to analyze
available data to ascertain the costs of implementing such a solution.
Initial Costs
Any solution will require uniform equipment and machinery in all 159 counties and 2365
precincts to actually run any election.
Here is the list of necessary equipment and initial cost attached to it.
Device
Units
Unit Cost
Unit Cost
Total Cost
Low
High
Low
ePoll Book
8,000
$1,000
$1,200
$8,000,000
Polling
3,500
$4,000
$6,000
$14,000,000
Place
Scanner
Central
163
$30,000
$50,000
$4,890,000
Scanning
Device
Ballot
4,730
$3,500
$4,500
$16,555,000
Marking
Device (for
ADA
Compliance)
Total Initial
$43,445,000
Equipment
Costs

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Total Cost
High
$9,600,000
$21,000,000
$8,150,000
$21,285,000

$60,035,000

11

 Georgia State Director of Elections Memo, Page 2.
Keep in mind this is initial purchase costs only. There is no allowance for implementation,
training, warranties, maintenance, security, election management software integration, election
reporting software integration, etc.
Paper Costs
The ongoing costs of pre-printing ballots to be hand-marked by voters is a variable cost. We
made some assumptions to compare apples to apples for a statewide implementation.
First, we estimate $0.55 per ballot for the costs of pre-printing ballots. This cost will vary among
our 159 counties. The $0.55 is believed by our office to likely be on the low side.
Second, not being able to know the potential outcomes of elections, we can not know how many
runoffs we will see locally or statewide. Also, we do not include any other elections in the
analysis such as special elections, municipal, SPLOST, etc. We just know there will be many
over a 10-year period.
Third, we assume static population change. So for this analysis, we are settling on 7,100,000
voters. However, we are aware that there will be over one million new voters over the next ten
years.
Fourth, for this cost of pre-printed ballot analysis we focused on the statewide elections over a
10-year period. When doing pre-printed ballots, we have to print a potential ballot for every
active registered voter and print extra to account for Advanced Voting, Provisional Voting and
Ballot Spoilage. That additional number normally runs about 20%. Also, for Primaries, there
have to three types of ballots printed; Democratic, Non-Partisan, and Republican.
Type of
Election
Presidential
Preference
Primaries
Primaries
Primary Runoffs
Generals
General Runoffs
Total 10-year
Print Costs

# of Types of
Ballots
2

Anticipated # of # of Ballots
Elections
Printed Total
2
34,080,000

Total Cost over
10 years
$18,744,000

3
3
1
1

5
3
5
2

$70,290,000
$42,174,000
$23,430,000
$9,372,000
$164,010,000

127,800,000
76,680,000
42,600,000
17,040,000

These print costs are exclusively borne by the counties running the elections.
Conclusion
The low-end cost of equipment and printing is $207,455,000 and on the high-end cost is
$224,045,000. It should be noted that these costs for printing will fall to the counties. Further,
executing such a solution will be logistically difficult and expensive for the counties to bear.

2

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