Union County commissioners approve $73,801 renewal for Hart Intercivic voting system support

Union County commissioners on Jan. 6 approved a $73,801 renewal for the software license and maintenance contract for the county's Hart Intercivic Verity voting system.

Elections Director Kristen Jochen and Deputy Director Philip Henson told the board the county switched from ES&S equipment to Hart Intercivic after state certification and local testing, and that the current vote was for annual software support rather than new hardware. "The hand to eye sample audit is required after each election," Jochen said, describing post-election manual checks required by the State Board of Elections. Henson described technical safeguards: "No. No part of our system touches any part of the Internet," he said, adding that drives are encrypted, operating systems are locked, and two-factor access is required for programming machines.

The presentation traced the county's migration away from direct-recording electronic touchscreens to a paper-ballot workflow that lets every voter review a human-readable ballot before cast. Jochen said Union County tested Hart in one precinct during the Nov. 5, 2019 municipal election, rolled the system out countywide for the March 3, 2020 primary, and initially purchased the equipment under a contract of a little over $1,000,000. The county emphasized a bipartisan chain-of-custody and audit process: logic-and-accuracy (L&A) testing before each election, a hand-to-eye sample audit ordered by the State Board of Elections, hash testing of software files against U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) files (performed by the county though not yet mandated statewide), and bipartisan teams for reconciliation and ballot handling.

Jochen told the board the county retains election records for 22 months after an election, longer if legal action continues, and that records disposal is handled on-site and by shredding. She also said municipalities are billed for municipal election costs and that the county budgets roughly $200,000 for municipal election cycles; municipalities may pay additionally for extra early voting sites.

Commissioner Bridal Helms thanked the elections team for the presentation. "The information that you've given us tonight has been very, very informative," Bridal Helms said, adding that the presentation helped answer constituent concerns about election security.

A motion to approve the renewal passed unanimously.

The county invited commissioners and members of the public to tour the elections warehouse and observe processes outside of election periods. The elections office said it uses volunteer training and party-appointed judges at polling sites and retains records and logs for chain-of-custody and post-election reconciliation.