Today was the bid deadline on the Guam Election Commission’s RFP for vote tabulators. GEC Executive Director Maria Pangelinan says a number of bids were received from a variety of companies. She could not say how many or who submitted the bids. Nor could she say how many tabulators will be purchased, since all that depends on the capabilities of the machines being offered, and their cost. And they won’t know that until the bids are opened and examined in the week ahead. Pangelinan said the staff will start evaluating the bids Monday, and she expects a recommended bidder will be presented to the Election Commission at their next meeting on Thursday, March 20th.
She again expressed confidence that the new tabulators will be on island in time for the August primary, but she has a back up plan, just in case.
“We’ve been preparing for a contingency plan as well. We will set a critical date if the machines are not here or if there is no commitment for the machines to be here by this ‘trigger’ date. We will look at our contingency plan to repair our old machines since that’s all we have,” said Pangelinan.
Full Article: VIDEO: GEC Expects New Central Tabulators Just in Time for This Year’s Election.