Voting Systems

Voting Systems Overview

North Carolina law requires that voting systems meet certain federal and state requirements as defined in the Help America Vote Act (HAVA, 2005). All voting systems are certified by the State Board of Elections after undergoing mandatory testing by nationally accredited laboratories. Newly certified voting systems must meet the standards set forth in the most recent version of the EAC’s Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG), which is the standard used to achieve federal EAC certification. 

County boards of elections, in conjunction with their county board of commissioners, decide which approved voting system will best serve their voters. Before purchasing a new voting system, counties must first undergo a public demonstration of the equipment and test use it in an election or simulated election. Under state law, voting equipment may not be connected to the internet or use wireless access, limiting the possibility of outside interference.

ES&S DS200 Tabulator

Jones County votes using paper ballots marked either by hand or with a ballot-marking device, providing a paper trail of all votes cast that can be audited or recounted by elections officials.  Jones County uses Election Systems & Software’s (ES&S) DS200 Digital Scanner as its primary tabulator for all Early Voting and Election Day voting locations, as well as absentee by mail and provisional ballots at the Board of Elections office. The DS200 functions as a ballot scanner and vote tabulator complete with a large touchscreen display which provides additional information to the voter. Voters first mark their paper ballot with the provided ink pen before inserting their marked ballot into the tabulator to be counted. Once the tabulator scans the ballot the votes are counted and the ballot is deposited into a secure ballot storage bin. The DS200 has multiple layers of security built-in–in addition to physical locks, password protection, and hash validation, all data is encrypted and digitally signed. It does not contain any wireless capabilities and operates fully offline. Election results are securely transferred using proprietary removable media.

ES&S AutoMARK Voter Assist Terminal (VAT)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) requires that government services provide reasonable modifications to accommodate people with disabilities. In order to fulfill this requirement, Jones County provides each voting location with an ADA approved ballot marking assistance device–the AutoMARK by Election Systems & Software.  The AutoMARK assistive features include an adjustable LCD touchscreen, rubber-textured directional hardware arrows and buttons with Braille text, audio jack with headphones for audio ballot, ADA dual switch access (DSA) port, high contrast mode, and screen privacy mode.  The voter first inserts their blank ballot card into the unit. The AutoMARK then displays a list of contests and candidates for which the voter is eligible to vote. An audio narrator reads aloud the contests, candidates, and voter selections back to the voter through the included headphones. When ready, the voter makes their selections using the touchscreen or keypad. Once all contests have been voted the voter selections are printed onto the ballot card. The voter must then take their printed ballot to the tabulator so that their vote can be counted.