The sample ballots for Washoe County’s presidential preference primary, primary election and general election won’t be printed locally, but commissioners who voted in August against a contract to print the ballots by an out-of-state company are still pleased.
A contract with Las Vegas-based Taylor Printing was approved for the massive print job Tuesday by Washoe’s Board of County Commissioners. The bid totaled just over $308,000—less than half of what California-based ProVote Solutions had bid earlier this year.
Conservative commissioners Mike Clark, Clara Andriola and Jeanne Herman all voted against the ProVote contract because they wanted to see it awarded to a local vendor. County Manager Eric Brown, at the August meeting, said finding a local printer with the equipment and capability for this type of job has been a challenge.
Despite concerns over delays in the timeline and lack of capable local printers, county staff re-bid the project with extra outreach to local vendors.
According to a staff report, the request for proposals was posted to DemandStar, a government contracts and proposals website, and sent to 104 companies. Four Washoe County printers were included in that distribution, with another 40 from other areas of Nevada.
Just three proposals were received—none from Washoe County.
In addition to bids from Taylor Printing and ProVote Solutions, Sacramento, California-based Metro Print and Mail Solutions also bid on the project.
“I really appreciate the hard work that you put in this and trying to look at opportunities for local bidders,” Commissioner Andriola told county Comptroller Cathy Hill. “The fact that Taylor is actually located, in terms of their print shop, in Las Vegas is still Nevada. Even though it’s not Washoe County, which would be great, the fact is that the process was executed.”
Andriola added that she hopes local vendors will look at better ways to serve in the future and pursue county contracts.
“Keeping it local is really important,” she said. “There’s a multiplier effect that comes into play when taxpayer money, or any money, is used in our community. It benefits the citizens that we serve.”
The vote to approve the sample ballot printing contract with Taylor Printing was unanimously approved.
