To pay for elections in 2015 the county put out approximately $50,000.

While a total of $171,761.85 was actually spent, $121,614.50 went to pay for the electronic poll books, an upgrade of equipment made last year to cut down on the amount of time it takes to vote. The state reimbursed the county for that cost.

“Right now you go to a multiple precinct location and you have to figure out where you are registered at,” Mark McCown, member of the county board of elections, said at the time. “With consolidation all data is registered and you can go up to any table and they will correctly send you through the process.”

The poll books purchased from Elections Systems and Software cut down the process of signing in from two minutes to 30 seconds.

The remainder of the money that went to ES&S was $1,575 for the November 2014 election canvass; $4,075.50 for software license; $22,025 for May 2015-April 2016 maintenance coverage: $383.94 for an external zip drive; $775 for project management; $8,402.66 for election day ballots, coding, testing and setup; $8,850 November 2015 election and special city mayoral runoff; and $4,060.25 for ballot setup and creation for November 2015 and special election.

Last month ES&S admitted operator error was the cause of inaccurate results in one of the Lawrence County Commission races. The company refunded the $4,000 fee it was charging for that election.