The Panola County Election Office should be getting updated equipment and software to help expedite election operations after the Panola County Commissioners’ Court unanimously approved a proposal from Election Systems and Software.
Loretta Mason, elections administrator, said the system is needed. Approved at Tuesday’s meeting was the purchase of 23 Express Poll Systems with cases and supporting software.
“Our old equipment can’t be updated anymore,” she said. “So, for us to be efficient in our office we need to purchase new equipment to run our elections efficiently and we need new equipment to do that.”
A representative of ES&S said the state now requires poll books to be certified.
“This will streamline her process as well. All the forms she has to send out to her polling locations that were being filled out manually by hand are now on the poll book,” the company spokeswoman said.
“At the end of the election she can then print all these reports straight from her computer rather than digging through every polling location’s bags to find the pieces of paper that election judges put in there,” the representative said.
Pct. 1 Commissioner Billy Alexander moved to approve the purchase, while Pct. 4 Commissioner Dale LaGrone seconded the motion. It gained unanimous approval.
Other Items
The court took action which eventually should help alleviate flooding which occurs at a bridge on Hogg’s Bayou on Panola County Road 201. Pct. 2 Commissioner David Cole said the move will allow the county to work with the state to replace and raise the level of a bridge which has been prone to flooding.
In other action, commissioners approved the low bid submitted in a sealed bids received for the purchase of three day cab tandem axle trucks for Precincts 1, 2 and 3. Longview Truck Center, with a bid of $65,237 per truck, won the bids over Westmark, with bids of $131,229 each.
The lone bid submitted to purchase used county office equipment went for $30 was accepted.
Dr. Hill at Hill Chiropractic in Carthage was approved to conduct DOT physicals for new county hires.
Appointed to the county’s Sexually Oriented Business Order, Permit and License Appeal Board were Rose Helen Reid, Carl Anderson, Mark Manning, Kirk Weaver and Steven Hill. Their one-year terms will begin on Feb. 27.
Commissioners also approved the budgeting of funds received from the American Rescue Plan Act for Panola County to purchase medical bags for use by volunteer fire departments in the county.
At the county’s Feb. 28 meeting, commissioners approved holding public hearings to discuss posting of “No Thru Truck” signs on county roads and for lowering the speed limit on County Road 312 to 30 miles per hour.
McLane welcomed members of a Carthage High School government class of teacher Sherry Parker who attended the session and had a photo taken afterwards with the commissioners’ court.