Printelect Update

Following last week's post, Voting Vendor Lacks Paper Trail, and the subsequent dust-up I have continued with the search for information about Printelect.

The Secretary of State's office confirmed that there is no filing for a "Printelect, Inc." or for a name change from the "Owen G. Dunn Company".

There is a General Statute 55D that addresses name requirements for corporations.

The name of a corporation must contain the word "corporation", "incorporated", "company", or "limited", or the abbreviation "corp.", "inc.", "co.", or "ltd.".

There is no statutory requirement that any entity using these words actually be incorporated. Use of the term "Inc." or similar corporate designators without being incorporated is misleading but it is not currently illegal. (This is something I hope to change in the next legislative session). An Assumed Name filing should still be made at the Register of Deeds of the county where business is conducted.

The Cumberland County Register of Deeds office confirms that the search I conducted for Printelect is as accurate it gets. Cumberland County, where Printelect has a printing facility, maintains a full index online. There was no assumed filing record returned as of writing.

The State Board of Elections currently has no direct contract with Printelect but does work closely with the company. (SBOE does obtain a small amount of office supplies from the "Dunn Office Supply" entity). Printelect provides services in NC for ES&S which does have a contract with the SBOE. Printelect separately does provide goods and services directly to approximately 80 county BOEs.

When HAVA funding was made available in NC, SBOE made disbursements to Printelect for invoices forwarded by county BOEs which had contracted with Printelect for eligible sevices. At the time it was represented as DBA Printelect.

Printelect has been of great service to the North Carolina voting process. For example it maintains ES&S equipment for testing purposes and has been able to test the paper ballots of other vendors, diagnosing problems prior to election day.

Yesterday I received the following communication from the Craven County Register of Deeds where Printelect is headquartered.

That assumed name was filed on 9/19/2007 in Book 2648 page 440.

Thank you Printelect for crossing the "t", and dotting the "i", providing an additional level of assurance for North Carolina voters that their votes are in good hands.