Dallas County Commissioners voted to approve a $7.6 million contract for new E-poll books ahead of the municipal elections in May.
The commissioners court awarded the contract to KNOWiNK, LLC, after the Secretary of State decertified the previous E-poll book system, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), in December.
ES&S lost its certification after allegedly failing seven technical and three functional standards during testing, according to the Office of the Secretary of State (SOS), as Texas Scorecard reported.
The Dallas County Elections Department reported issues with the ES&S E-poll books during the first day of early voting in the last general election. The software on the poll books that election clerks use to check in voters frequently froze and rebooted, causing delays at the polls. The issue also raised concerns that the last voter recorded before each reboot may not have been saved in the system.
At the Dallas County Commissioners meeting in January, Judd Ryan, the senior vice president of sales for ES&S, took responsibility for the software glitch and said he believed the issue could be quickly corrected, allowing the company to get recertified.
“We 100 percent want to continue with Dallas County,” Ryan said, per KERA News. “I think our development team will fix the issue, I think we will get certified, and if they vote to stay with us, I think we’re going to have a great election with them in May.”
However, the SOS has not yet recertified ES&S.
KNOWiNK, the E-poll book system chosen by Dallas County on February 11, is one of five systems currently certified by the SOS for use in Texas, along with ContentActive, Tenex, Votec, and VR Systems.
KNOWiNK is advertised as “America’s most trusted poll book” and “the first-in-the-nation to receive certification from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for our signature product, the Poll Pad electronic poll book system.” It purports to set “a new industry standard for election security, transparency, and accessibility.”
Dallas County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia said the county would need 4,500 tablets with the new software so poll workers could be trained to use them before the city elections in May, per KERA. Thus, it is imperative for the commissioners to choose a new system quickly.
Some state lawmakers have proposed ending countywide voting in favor of voting by precinct, thus eliminating the need for electronic poll books. Texas Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) and Rep. Steve Toth (R-Conroe) have both introduced legislation to that effect.
The Brennan Center for Justice has suggested that polling places should use E-poll books as well as paper backup copies of voter information in case of power loss or other technical issues, per Texas Scorecard.