Lake Mary High student project saves Seminole County $16,000 on elections gear

A Lake Mary High School sophomore’s 3D-printed clip saved Seminole County elections officials more than $16,000 by replacing a part the manufacturer would not sell separately. The fix kept ballot-on-demand printers running without forcing the county to buy entire drawers for every failing machine.

The problem started when a senior IT technician in the Seminole County Elections Office flagged a small but critical clip that holds ballot paper in place inside the printers and helps prevent jams. Because the manufacturer did not offer the clip as a standalone part, the county’s only original option was to replace the full printer drawer at about $125 per unit. With about 150 printers in use during election season, that would have pushed the bill past $18,000.

Instead, Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Amy Pennock turned to Lake Mary High School’s Manufacturing Program and technical design teacher Chris Endress. Sophomore Ethan Sigal used computer-aided design software to model the replacement piece, then produced it with 3D printing at an estimated cost of about $15 per part. The new component cut the county’s replacement expense to a fraction of the manufacturer’s price, delivering savings of roughly $16,000 and keeping taxpayer money in local hands.

Sigal said he measured the broken piece to hundredths of an inch before building the replacement, and the project was finished in one class period. The work also gave him real-world exposure to engineering through Lake Mary High’s manufacturing program, where he has earned certifications in three software programs and said he is interested in aerospace engineering or architecture after high school.

Pennock has framed the repair as more than a one-off fix. The student-built part arrived before the county’s August elections and was presented as a model for how school-government partnerships can solve a public problem faster and cheaper than a standard vendor contract. The savings also go back into a school program rather than to the manufacturer, creating a local payoff that reaches beyond the Elections Office.

For Seminole County, the project showed that a small equipment failure does not have to become a big public bill. It also gave the county a tested, low-cost replacement for a part that mattered every day ballots moved through the system.