Miami County’s Board of Elections last week heard about preparations for the May 6 primary election and received a breakdown of the more than $96,000 in bills for the November election.

The board heard about election preparations, and associated costs where relevant, from Elections Director Drew Higgins and Deputy Director Eric Morgan.

The May election includes races for state representative and state senate as well as county elected positions. There also are several issues on the ballots.

Higgins said security cameras requested to be installed permanently in the counting room would be in place before the election. The contract with the West Milton Rotary for the distribution and pick up of the electronic voting machines also is being finalized, he said.

The board agreed to the number of paper ballots that will be ordered to have at each precinct for provisional voting or for use by anyone who asks for a paper ballot instead of using the voting machine.

The board agreed to order 10 percent of the number of ballots used in the precinct in the similar election four years ago or no less than five of every ballot style.

Higgins also reported that the logic and accuracy testing of all of the county’s electronic voting machines is under way. Additional paper has been purchased for the machines at a cost of around $2,000, he said.

“It’s all worth it if it’s right,” board member Robert Huffman Jr. said of the testing of machines.

Higgins also told the board that around 24,000 postcards are being mailed to voters who have a new voting precinct or polling location. The county has some 70,000 registered voters. The cost will be around $6,500.

The changes were made because of the redrawing of precincts in areas including Tipp City and Springcreek Township and changes in polling places to better comply with handicapped accessibility requirements. In Troy, a new polling location will be the ITW building (former Hobart Corp. world headquarters) on South Ridge Avenue.

Higgins also shared with the board the costs of the November election.

November election costs:

$709.92: Intab Inc., Voting machines security tags/seals

$2,958: Various individuals, Machine logic and accuracy testing

$524.53: CivitasMedia, Registration deadline notice

$19,350: ES&S, Ballot on demand printer

$42,827.30: Poll workers, rovers and mileage

$614: 3G Barret Brothers, Pollbooks for all precincts

$3,802.30: Integrated Voting Solutions, Absentee and Election Day ballots

$784.05: ES&S, Election Day set up/PDF creation

$2,730: Dominion Voting Systems, Election Day support

$4,516.43: Triad, Signature poll books and postings

$2,475: Various, polling locations

$14,810: West Milton Rotary, Voting Machine delivery/set up