Elections Commissioner Rick Hollis and Mike McCormick
attended the meeting to update the committee on the recent Elections
Commissioner Conference in Albany, New York. Mr. Hollis stated there are some
topics that are important to bring before the committee, with the biggest topic
being cyber security. Mr. Hollis went on to say Oswego County lost their entire
voter registration system; their server went down and after realizing they
weren’t backed up, they lost an entire month and it cost them $50,000 to get
back up and running. Mr. Hollis added that he recently spoke with IT Director
Keith Hooker to make sure Allegany County never falls into that situation, and
while it’s a difficult process, they will move forward to discuss how to always
ensure we are backed up. Mr. Hollis continued that in addition to five
organizations, the Governor and State Attorney General are pushing to implement
electronic poll books, adding that this will be a huge expense for us because
the machines cost $1,200 to $1,500 with yearly maintenance estimated at $300.
Mr. Hollis stated in the next three to five years we will be looking at the end
of life on our voting machines and having to replace them, adding this is going
to be a huge expense for us, and he believes we should create a capital account
to start putting funds away so we aren’t hit with the $500,000 all at once. Mr.
Hollis added that the Federal Government and State are no longer covering the
machines, and with the County being 100 percent responsible, he’s trying to plan
ahead, because it’s going to hit us sooner than later.
