This pilot program was concluded on October 25, 2023.
Overview
On October 25, 2023, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) released a report on the findings of the EAC’s Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Pilot Program. The purpose of this pilot program was to conduct a small-scale preliminary study to evaluate the feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and improvement opportunities for evaluating e-poll books for federal testing & certification. This pilot program resulted in the revision of the Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Certification Requirements (VEPBCR) and the official launch of the Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Certification Program.
During pilot program testing, which took place between January and August 2023, voting system test laboratories evaluated e-poll book devices from five commercial manufacturers, and two in-house developers (listed below). These systems were evaluated against the pilot version (0.9) of the Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Certification Requirements developed by the EAC’s Election Supporting Technology Evaluation Program (ESTEP) in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), cybersecurity and accessibility experts, and other key stakeholders. The pilot program confirmed that the systems tested are election ready for use in 2024 and would require only minor changes, such as added documentation, to meet the revised requirements.
Note: Manufacturers and systems that participated in the Pilot Program were not automatically registered or certified with the EAC but are eligible to participate under the Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Certification Program. Interested manufacturers must demonstrate that they have met all requirements under the EAC’s Election Supporting Technology Evaluation Program Manual and the Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Certification Requirements Version 1.0 to apply for certification.
| E-Poll Book System (Name/Version) | VSTL | System Manufacturer | Participation Agreement Signed | Testing Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ExpressPoll 7.2.5.0 | Pro V&V | Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) | 2023-01-31 | 2023-04-26 |
| Poll Pad 3.4 | SLI Compliance | KNOWiNK | 2023-02-01 | 2023-06-09 |
| Precinct Central 5.1.9 | Pro V&V | Tenex Software Solutions | 2023-01-31 | 2023-06-13 |
| On-Site Voter Registration Database (OVRD) 2.9.120 | Pro V&V | North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) | 2023-04-25 | 2023-07-06 |
| VoteSafe 1.3.77 | Pro V&V | VOTEC Corporation | 2023-04-13 | 2023-07-10 |
| AskED E-Poll Book 3.4 | SLI Compliance | Robis Elections Inc. | 2023-01-31 | 2023-07-19 |
| SiteBook 3.4 | SLI Compliance | Maricopa County, Arizona Elections Department | 2023-06-14 | 2023-09-08 |
Click here to return to the Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Certification Program resource page.
Program Videos & Testimonials
ESTEP and the E-Poll Book Pilot Program
EAC Virtual Meeting on the Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Pilot Report (November 17, 2023)
Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Certification Program - Stakeholder Testimonials
EAC Virtual Meeting on the Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Pilot Program Report
November 17, 2023
"KNOWiNK believes that the entire industry will benefit from uniform federal certification standards, not just e-poll book vendors. This is going to allow companies to design software to known standards and it’s going to allow states to build certification programs based on those federal standards or add some additions to it... If we have set standards across the board, it’s going to allow new e-poll book vendors to innovate on standards that are known and it’s going to allow current e-poll book vendors to keep maintaining certification standards to meet security and integrity in the process."
Rokey Suleman, Government Affairs Director at KNOWiNK
"ES&S believes that uniform testing for electronic poll books, similar to the EAC voting system standards, will streamline the process for manufacturers, voting system test laboratories, as well as jurisdictions, with the added benefit of improved performance and security. We look forward to our continued involvement in the program."
TJ Burns, State Certification Manager for Election Systems at ES&S
"If you’re participating in a federal certification program, you are getting that expertise through voting system testing laboratories coming in house and doing that same type of testing, and then using those known baseline standards. I view that as a huge advantage to local jurisdictions to be able to participate in a program like this."
Scott Jarrett, Director of Elections in Maricopa County, Arizona
"By the EAC putting these standards forward, it builds confidence... It would be helpful to other states to have these recommendations for certification."
Chad Kinsella, Associate Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the
Voting System Technical Oversight Program at Ball State University
"While election administrators are focusing on list maintenance and supporting voter outreach in education, the ability to point to a series of recommended guidelines that are put together by the team at the EAC, and the many subject matter experts and technical experts that the EAC involves, takes a little bit of the burden off states to come up with something very similar... This allows us to focus on other responsibilities."
Mark Wlaschin, Deputy Secretary of State for Elections in Nevada
"If manufacturers go through federal testing, everybody knows what you’ve done, and the states can then actually scale back some of their specific requirements because they’re going to be overlapped with the federal requirements... By unifying all of the testing at a federal level, you would be able to pull along some of the states that want to develop standards but may not have the resources to do so."
Jack Cobb, Co-Founder and Laboratory Director at Pro V&V
"The potential value of a federal certification program is huge. It will help create a baseline consistency in the e-poll books that the public can have confidence in knowing that – at a minimum – any e-poll book that’s certified meets various functionality, security, and accessibility requirements. It gives uniform guidance to e-poll book manufacturers... to have an understanding of what that base level of requirements and robustness is going to be... It will impact, not only the states, but the manufacturers as well in a positive way."
Michael Santos, Voting System Test Lab Director at SLI Compliance