OPA vice-president Rick Farr will make a motion to hire MK Elections out of Pittsburgh as the election vendor for the upcoming board election.

MK Elections submitted the highest bid received by the Election Committee - $31,539.

With low bidder ACE Printing of Berlin withdrawing its bid of $18,685, one can only wonder why a bid from Voatz out of Massachusetts of $22,000 was not even mentioned even though reporting in the Ocean Pines Progress said Voatz met all the RFP requirements.

Here's what likely happened.

ACE had the lowest bid, and is local. MK did the work last year. When the committee did its review of the bidders there were three members who voted to hire ACE. Two members wanted MK, probably because MK did the job previously. Voatz was simply lost in the bureaucratic shuffle as the committee initially suggested the two companies, ACE and MK as their preferences, prior to voting to select ACE.

There should at least be some public discussion of why Voatz, apparently qualified and meeting the RFP requirements, is not even being considered when it's proposal is about $9,500 less than MK.

MK, according to the Progress, also wants a three year contract and $7,500 up front. Farr's motion mentions nothing about how much OPA will pay MK or for how many years.

Farr's motion just says the Election Committee will work with legal counsel to come up with a contract.

Oddly, Election Committee liaison John Latham made the motion to contract with ACE last Saturday, with Farr, Jeff Heavner, and candidate Lakernick voting against ACE. This time around Farr is making the motion.

Why ignore Voatz, a qualified company? What is driving this love affair with MK?