Vendor whose website crashed on election night donated $3K to former St. Clair clerk

A company that provides election services to St. Clair County — and whose website crashed on election night — gave more than $3,000 in political donations before being awarded an $826,560 no-bid contract.

The campaign donations were made to the county’s former clerk, Bob Delaney, who resigned in 2013 amid scandal. He could not be reached for comment.

One of the donations came just days prior to the company sending a contract-renewal proposal to Delaney’s office. The company, Platinum Technology Resource, based in northern Illinois, now has a contract to provide election-related services to the St. Clair County clerk’s office from 2014 through 2017.

The company provides election-support services to St. Clair County and about a dozen other counties in the region. The services include posting vote results to a website and updating them throughout election night, but the site crashed for hours on March 15, after the polls closed for the primary.

The company’s owner declined to comment on political donations, but said the problems on election night were caused by intense interest in the vote results and high traffic to the website.

David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said it “looks bad” when public officials accept campaign money from vendors who do business with their government agencies.

“It undermines the public confidence in elected officials,” Yepsen said. “When people see things like this, they assume the worst.”

Platinum Technology and its owners and employees have made a handful of campaign donations to other clerks and politicians in the counties where it has contracts, but none exceeding $300. It’s not unheard of for elected officials to receive campaign donations from vendors, but some elected officials try to avoid them.

Clinton County Clerk Mary Rakers has a contract with Platinum, but she has not received any political contributions from the company.

“That would be — I would think — a conflict of interest,” Rakers said.

According to the state board of elections, the late Jay Bennett and his wife, Mary Pat Bennett, who owns Platinum, made two $1,500 contributions to Citizens for Delaney, the campaign committee for Delaney.

One of the $1,500 donations came in March of 2009 and the other in 2010, before Jay Bennett died in 2012. Jay Bennett also made two $500 donations to Delaney in 2002, when Jay Bennett worked for a similar company, Fidlar Doubleday.

Another $200 contribution was made by the Bennetts to Delaney’s campaign on March 14, 2013 — five days before Platinum sent a contract-renewal proposal to Delaney’s office.

The County Board approved the contract.

Current St. Clair County Clerk Tom Holbrook, who was appointed clerk in 2013 after Delaney’s resignation, said the county does not have to seek bids or requests for proposals for professional work, such as the election services.

Holbrook said that, during his tenure, the company has always provided reliable service. Holbrook has not received any campaign money from Platinum.

Counties that have contracts with Platinum include St. Clair, Monroe, Adams, Clinton, Fayette, Hardin, Marion, Pulaski, Randolph, Union and Wayne. The company also provides services to the East St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners.

Platinum, in response to inquiries from the News-Democrat, issued a press release, in which the company called the March 15 election a success. Platinum said it had tabulated votes in 95 percent of precincts by 9 p.m., and the remaining 5 percent were completed by 10 p.m. on election night.

The company said its website with vote results was overwhelmed by “traffic resulting from the intense interest in all contests,” the news release said. “This resulted in our system being intermittently available for three and half hours. After 10:30 p.m. on election night, and since, all results have been available for public review. Official results will be posted to the site once the election is certified.”

“We deeply respect the needs of our clients and the communities they serve,” Platinum added. “We will be adding additional resources to our system to handle all levels of traffic to ensure that the report site will be accessible at all times.”

The election night website failure is concerning to Yepsen.

“The fact is, the vendors produced a product that didn’t produce,” Yepsen said. “It becomes more of a question of, how is the person selected?”

Dennis Knobloch, the Monroe County clerk, praised Platinum in the company’s news release.

“Despite the problems encountered with having results immediately available on the web, we provided that information to the public via phone, local media outlets and direct contact, with little or no concern from the voting public,” Knobloch said.

Monroe County has used Platinum since 2008, and the contract was not put out for bid or a request for proposal when it renewed for the 2014-2017 time frame, Knobloch said.

For the March primary, Monroe County paid Platinum $41,084 for election services. The total contract value for the 2014-2017 time frame is $236,000.

County clerks around the area have said the company has been helpful and has provided good service over the years.

Emails obtained by the BND show a cordial relationship between county clerk employees and employees at Platinum. The emails include discussions of attending events such as a dinner at a clerk conference, a St. Louis Blues game and a golf outing.

But the emails also show the company’s deep level of involvement in handling the elections in each county.

The company helps keep voter registrations updated, provides sample ballots for clerks to proof before elections, provides refreshers on dealing with military absentee ballot applications, updates clerks on the maintenance of voting machines and does other prep work prior to elections. Platinum also sends out updates about legislation that would affect voter registration or election.

After Delaney resigned, the county settled sexual harassment claims against him for $665,000. Five county clerk office employees made accusations against Delaney, which he denied.

Platinum is based in St. Charles, in northern Illinois. Mary Pat Bennett and her son, Jay C. Bennett III, who serves as chief operating officer for Platinum, reside in that area.

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 7:24 AM with the headline "Vendor whose website crashed on election night donated $3K to former St. Clair clerk."