Priced as recurring infrastructure, not as a capital project
Per registered voter, per year, tiered by feature depth, with the cryptographic custody layer as the premium tier. Typical funding sources are HAVA funds, state election security grants, and county general fund — officials need a proposal to name the bucket, not only the number.
The sanity check every buyer should run on every quote
Ballot tracking in this category trades in cents to low dollars per registered voter per year. A figure two orders of magnitude outside that band is not an aggressive price; it is a sign the vendor has not priced this category before, and a procurement officer will find it in under five minutes.