By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
A Sapulpa company will print Canadian County’s election ballots in 2023.
Midwest Printing Co. has been awarded the contract to provide regular, absentee and sample ballots for the Canadian County Election Board.
Canadian County Commissioners, at their weekly meeting Nov. 21, voted 3-0 to award the annual ballot printing bid.
The action was recommended by Allen Arnold, acting secretary of the Canadian County Election Board.
“We’re probably only going to be using 8.5 by 14 inches ballots for the next year,” Arnold told county commissioners.
Midwest Printing offered the better price for that size ballots among two vendors interested in Canadian County’s 2023 ballot printing contract.
Midwest Printing of Sapulpa and Royal Printing of Oklahoma City recently submitted unit prices to print ballots in three sizes – 8.5 by 14 inches, 8.5 by 17 inches and 8.5 by 19 inches.
Midwest Printing bid 13.5 cents for 14-inch ballots, 14 cents for 17-inch ballots and 15 cents for 19-inch ballots.
Royal Printing bid 14.5 cents for 14-inch ballots, 15.5 cents for 17-inch ballots and 15.5 cents for 19-inch ballots.
Midwest Printing also provides extra services for Canadian County Election Board personnel – specifically packing all the ballots and stitching them in lower quantities when needed.
“If we have a precinct that only needs 25 ballots, he’ll split those up for us and stitch them in 25,” Arnold explained.
Midwest Printing was indeed the “lowest and the best” bidder, District 3 Commissioner Jack Stewart noted.
“I’m glad to hear they do the ‘extras’,” Stewart said.
Canadian County Commissioners initially opened ballot printing bids at their Nov. 7th meeting but tabled the award to give election board officials time to review the proposals.
Canadian County now has more than 95,000 registered voters, an increase of 7.3% since November 2020.
Midwest Printing printed the ballots that the Canadian County Election Board used during the busy 2022 election season.
Midwest Printing and Royal Printing also were the only two vendors who bid on Canadian County’s 2022 ballot printing contract.
THAT AND THAT …
In other business at their Nov. 21st meeting, Canadian County Commissioners approved:
- A resolution to sponsor applications through the Oklahoma Department of Transportation for three phases of a proposed five-phase project to improve the bike route and shoulders along Route 66 in western Canadian County. Canadian County would be responsible for a 20% “local share” of up to $4 million, with the rest covered by federal funding. The vote was 2-1, with District 1 Commissioner Marc Hader voting “no.” (Read full story in upcoming edition).
- An annual agreement for fiscal year 2023 that allows the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office to assign a full-time deputy to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as part of ongoing law enforcement efforts to curtail drug use in Canadian County.
- An annual agreement for fiscal year 2023 with the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service to perform cooperative extension services in Canadian County.
- Canadian County Treasurer’s annual financial statement ending June 30.
Canadian County Undersheriff Kevin Ward gave the weekly county jail report showing 224 inmates in custody, with 198 prisoners at the El Reno detention center and 26 others housed in outside contract counties.
After having to remove Canadian County inmates from the Ellis County Jail last week, Canadian County sheriff’s officials are in talks with Tillman and Wagoner counties about housing inmates when jail bed space is full here.
Inmate capacity is 194 at the Canadian County Jail, which was last expanded in 2013.
If needed, jail personnel will deploy portable plastic beds to handle any inmate overflow.
