New software and an end to a tradition

 “The tradition is gone. It ended the minute computers came out,” board solicitor Mike Butera said of the courthouse gatherings.


Jennifer tells in the TL that Luzerne County will no longer have the traditional gathering in the courthouse rotunda on election night awaiting the results. County Election Director Marisa Crispell-Barber will be switching election night tallying from the courthouse to the county’s Penn Place building...Crispell-Barber told the board it makes more sense to keep her staff and equipment at Penn Place where the election office is housed.

Yes it does cost a few bucks to do it at the courthouse but former Director Leonard Piazza not only pulled it off without a hitch but actually wowed people with the setup he put together.  And he didn't make careless mistakes like not talking to the other county that had an overlapping school board race that resulted in a expensive do over. I like former Controller Walter Griffith but the pissing contest that he got into with Lenny that resulted in Piazza getting fired did a great disservice to us all.

In the May primary election the county website crashed and Though he was sorry to learn about the website issues, county Election Board solicitor Mike Butera savored the action from a seat in the rotunda. “This is great, just like the old days,” Butera said. So what is it Butters? In May he liked the rotunda gathering and today he doesn't.

The website had never crashed in the previous elections including the 2012 Prez contest when many more people were looking for results.

Now those problems should be over because the county bought some off the shelf software. 

 

County Election Director Marisa Crispell-Barber said she originally ruled out purchasing the “Clarity Election Night Reporting” program from Florida-based SOE Software Corp. because the company gave a prior election director (shot) a quote of $54,000. She negotiated the price down to $7,000 annually for three years.

“I think the public will be happy, and the implementation of this software should resolve any issues experienced with website traffic.”


The program allows the public to search for results by candidate, precinct or race. Maps, charts and graphs are available to put results in perspective, and reports can be downloaded in various formats — all options not available on the county website, Crispell-Barber said.

We will see if it works.