Pierce County has won a National Association of Counties (NACo) Award for using the latest technology to streamline elections.
During the 2016 Presidential Election, Pierce County needed a secure and more efficient way to check in hundreds of temporary election workers. The county implemented biometric time clocks to streamline time entry for these workers. Now up to 20 workers can check in per minute with just a swipe of a finger. The new system is expected to save $10,000 per year by reducing staff time spent on payroll processing and will eliminate the need for hundreds of paper time sheets.
The award recognizes that Pierce County is one of the first counties in the Pacific Northwest to use biometric time clocks for elections. Thanks to the new system, staff can focus on quickly and accurately processing ballots and certifying results. Other county departments are also adopting the clocks to save time and money.
“The Pierce County’s Auditor’s Office never sits on its laurels. Our Elections Divisions has a stellar reputation for always striving to be more efficient and more precise,” Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson said. “Thanks to our partners in Pierce County Finance, Human Resources, and Information Technology, our biometric time clock project will save time and money, as well as increase accuracy.”
The county won a second award for successfully upgrading over 3,200 PCs and 1,000 mobile devices to Office 365, as well as migrating 4,500 email accounts to Outlook and a new email archiving system. Pierce County IT was recognized in the industry for a near perfect email archive data migration. Over the next five years, this implementation of Office 365 will save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars by using Microsoft cloud subscription services, providing access to the latest Microsoft software releases and increasing the use of collaboration technology.