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State elections office outlines three major IT projects as DLS flags timing, costs and vendor risks
Summary
The State Board of Elections told the subcommittee it is balancing outreach gains from the 2024 cycle with three overlapping major IT projects—the statewide poll book modernization, a new voting system, and a voter-registration modernization—that DLS cautioned could strain staff and budgets.
The State Board of Elections is managing several overlapping, high-cost IT efforts that DLS said will test staff capacity and project timelines ahead of the 2028 election cycle.
DLS reported the State Board's fiscal 2026 allowance at about $54 million, down about $15 million from fiscal 2025 primarily because reimbursable IT funds for FY25 are budgeted under the Department of Information Technology in FY26. The DLS analyst told the subcommittee that SBE currently has four major IT projects: a statewide poll book modernization (SPM), a new voting system, a new campaign finance system (MD CRISP replacement), and a planned MDVoters modernization to replace the voter-registration database.
‘‘The previously contracted vendor for the new poll book project did not deliver a product that met minimum requirements during product testing. The project was closed as of June 30, 2024, and a separate SPM project began on July 1, 2024,’’ the DLS analyst said, asking SBE to explain litigation reserves and contingency plans. DLS estimated the revised total SPM project cost at $38.1 million and flagged an RFP planned for March 2025.
On the new voting system, Jared Marinas, State Administrator of Elections, said no vendor has yet completed the U.S. Election Assistance Commission—s voluntary voting system guidelines (VVSG 2) certification and that SBE extended its current contract to March 2027. ‘‘Vendors have signaled a 20% to 50% increase in cost to comply with the new standard,’’ Marinas said, and the agency expects to issue an RFP for the voting system by July 2025.
Marinas also summarized SBE—s post-2024 outreach and vote-access work, including Dynamic Vote MD and expanded communications to detained individuals. ‘‘We specifically hit almost 3,000,000 people with digital outreach and the Dynamic Vote MD landing page made key election dates and links easy to find,’’ he said. He described continuity planning for poll books and contingency staffing approaches to handle multiple IT projects simultaneously.
DLS recommended committee narrative requesting combined quarterly reports on progress across the major SBE IT efforts and asked SBE to explain contingency plans if RFP or implementation dates slip.
SBE said it would provide requested updates and defended continuing the MDVoters modernization, citing a 20-year-old system, redistricting needs, and the daily reliance of 24 local boards on the central voter-registration database. The board opposed deferral of the MDVoters project, noting long testing needs and high stakes for local administrators.
