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 is prompting many North Carolina counties to consider hardware and software changes. County election officials said the county must weigh upgrades against certification requirements, available grants and operational costs.

Most important details - Vendor role and reach: Jansick said Prinselec acts as a turnkey vendor for ES&S, providing sales, equipment maintenance, ballot printing and coding services to counties in the Carolinas and Virginia. He told the board Prinselec printed more than 30 million ballots in the most recent election cycle. - Hardware changes: The DS300 tabulator consolidates the previous two-piece DS200 design into a single box, adds new mechanical and sealing features and uses the same EAC-approved thumb drive format for results. Jansick said the DS300’s battery offers around four hours of continuous use under heavy load and longer in intermittent use. - ExpressVote features and concerns: The ExpressVote device prints a voter-verifiable paper ballot that also includes a barcode readable by optical scanners. Jansick described the unit as “4 to 5 times faster” on printing and processing in some precincts and said it can be operated as a ballot-marking device (printing a ballot to feed into an optical tabulator) or used primarily as an ADA device. He noted privacy and traceability concerns some counties have raised when a small number of election-day ADA ballots could be linked to individual voters in small precincts, but said proper closing procedures and seals should mitigate that risk. - Security and certification: Jansick said some features — notably the smart-card two-factor authentication — are optional and not yet certified by the state. “That smart card is currently not certified,” he said. Counties can select optional features but must follow the state certification timeline. - Costs, procurement and support: Jansick said a workstation upgrade option (to run newer election software) would cost roughly $5,000 per workstation; a small printer used with provisional processing costs about $700 each; and on-site support for the first election typically includes vendor staff Monday through part of Wednesday. He said counties may purchase equipment outright or use financing arrangements; ES&S/Prinselec have offered loyalty discounts for long-term customers.

What the board did: The presentation was for information; no purchase or procurement action was taken at the meeting. Board members asked technical questions about battery life, thumb-drive capacity and how provisional ballots integrate with the ExpressVote and the optical scanner.

Details and technical clarifications - Thumb drives and backups: Jansick said the DS300 uses the same EAC-approved thumb drive partition as the DS200 and that the DS300 includes a backup reader to read a second device if needed. - Provisional ballots and ExpressVote: Jansick said the ExpressVote can be configured so ballots produced for provisional voting are not accepted by optical scanners inadvertently, reducing the risk of provisional ballots being counted before the required review. - Training and spares: The vendor recommended keeping at least two spare tabulators on hand to replace damaged units or handle last-minute needs and recommended training “rovers” (trained county personnel who can respond to multiple precincts on election day).

What remains unresolved - Certification timing and optional features: Two-factor smart-card authentication and some print-marking options were described as in development or not yet certified in North Carolina. - Budgeting and procurement: The county did not take a vote. Jansick said ES&S can offer financing options and sometimes structures payments across fiscal years, but final procurement decisions were left to the board and county finance staff.

Ending: Board members thanked the presenter and followed with the board’s director’s report. Any decision about replacing or leasing tabulators, ballot-marking devices or precinct laptops and printers will be considered in future budget discussions and after the state’s guidance on certification and available grant funds is clarified.