Dare County elections staff hear ES&S demo of DS300 tabulator and ExpressVote ADA system

Representatives of ES&S and the county’s equipment dealer demonstrated new tabulation and ballot-marking machines for the Dare County Board of Elections on the authority's regular meeting day, saying the devices add security and speed but that certification and some features remain optional.

Tom Jansick, a representative of Prinselec who said his firm works as a full-service dealer for ES&S in North Carolina, described the company’s DS300 optical scanner and the ExpressVote ballot-marking device. He said the DS300 replaces the DS200 with a single-piece ballot box, non-pick locks on the front, a solid-state design and a battery capable of several hours of continuous operation. Jansick said the ExpressVote can print a voter-verifiable paper ballot and offers additional accessibility features such as headphones, sip-and-puff input and adjustable font sizes.

Jansick said security upgrades being pushed through by the Election Assistance Commission and the industry’s “2.0” standards are driving the changes and that two-factor authentication is a key security feature. “Two-factor authentication…that’s the big thing part of our security aspect of 2.0,” Jansick said, describing an optional smart card plus code setup for poll workers to enable a unit.

Why it matters: the state-level certification timeline for existing election-management software and federal standards…