Olivia P. Tucker
Times Reporter
Scott County Board of Commissioners approved a two-year contract for a texting program to send election updates when they met Feb. 7.
Scott County Clerk Michelle Shelton spoke to the commissioners to discuss the program TextMyGov.
She explained TextMyGov is a program that residents of Scott County would sign up for to receive updates through texting or email for voting locations for the upcoming election. However, the Information Technology (IT) department of the county is also interested in using the software to update county employees on closures of government buildings due to weather, said Shelton.
Commissioner President Mike Jones said that he had concerns about the cyber data of the citizens of Scott County being sold or leaked. IT Director Andrew Campbell assured him that was not likely an issue program, he said.
Shelton added that if the commissioners decide to agree to the two-year contract and the agreement is not continued that all of the data would be returned to the county.
“It’s got a lot of capabilities,” said Commissioner Greg Prince, “Not only voting like we talked about in the beginning. It’s however you want to set it up.”
Jones said, “Also, I guess the thing that made me more or less apprehensive about it is that the disclaimer is that if I want to get on the program, I have to sign a disclaimer saying that I know that I am giving them the information. It is my responsibility whether I want to or not, so it’s not ‘Hey we are giving it to the county, we’re giving it to someone else to put into their system’. Each person has to sign off saying ‘I understand I am taking a risk possibility’.”
The two-year inaugural contract is for $2,200 a year, which is covered by a grant for the first year of the agreement. The second year of the agreement is proposed to be covered by the budgets of the IT department and the clerk, however, other departments could contribute to the cost if they wish to utilize the services as well, said Shelton.
Prince said that he felt that it would be a good trial program for the county to try and utilize and could help with the confusion of voting locations for future elections.
The commissioners unanimously voted to agree to the two-year contract for the use of the program TextMyGov.