Ten Things to Know 

About Selecting a 

Voting System

United States Election Assistance Commission

1335 East-West Highway Ste. 4300 Silver Spring , MD 20910 

www.eac.gov @EACgov

Managing Election Technology Series #1
U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION www.eac.gov

The EAC’s Managing Election Technology Series

"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient 

operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient 

operation will magnify the inefficiency." 

--Bill Gates

Overview

The Election Official of today is an Information Technology (IT) Manager – whether they think they are, 

whether they want to be, or whether they were trained to be. IT Management requires a unique set of 

attitudes, knowledge and skills in order to plan, direct, and control contemporary election 

administration. This series of guides to managing election technology identify the primary areas in 

which the effective Election Official must recognize their role as an IT manager and provides ideas and 

best practices to assist in accommodating the demands of the modern election’s office.
U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION www.eac.gov

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1. What is a Voting System?

Before you select a one, you need to know how 

your state’s statutes and rules define a voting 

system. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) 

defines voting systems as: (1) the total 

combination of mechanical, electromechanical, 

or electronic equipment (including the 

software, firmware, and documentation 

required to program, control, and support the 

equipment) that is used—

(A) to define ballots;

(B) to cast and count votes;

(C) to report or display election 

results; and

(D) to maintain and produce any 

audit trail information

Voting systems are certainly more than voting 

machines. A system is a collection of unified 

components, that when functioning properly, 

covert inputs to outputs. Systems consist of 

subsystems and systems interface other 

systems. This means that your voting system is 

a large collection of things – not just a 

casting/tabulation device (like a DRE or an 

optical scan unit). All of these subcomponents 

have to be carefully designed, tested and 

managed as a single system. Your voting 

system also interfaces other systems in your 

elections office. It has to integrate with your 

vote-by-mail\ absentee system, your UOCAVA 

ballot delivery system, electronic pollbooks, and 

election night reporting system.

Look at your voting system in the context of 

your total election systems. Understand its 

dependencies on outputs from other systems 

and other system’s dependencies on inputs 

from the voting system.

A voting system is the core technology that 

drives and integrates the election system. It is 

the flagship of your election systems:

 It is the most visible component of the 

election system – it’s what the media and 

public think of, when then think of elections

 It’s the part the voter touches – it is 

tangible to the voter

 It’s the part that produces results and 

determines outcomes of elections –

candidates and parties focus on voting 

systems on election night through recounts 

and contests

 It’s the part that receives most of the 

testing and auditing in elections – the EAC 

tests and certifies voting systems. Most 

states have protocols for assessing voting 

systems but not necessarily all election 

systems.

 It’s the least understood part of the system

– a very complex machine that does a very 

simple thing: it counts by one.

2. Know the roles and responsibilities 

of all stakeholders in the decision 

making process

At a minimum, the contemporary voting system 

selection process may involve scores of 

stakeholders. Your jurisdiction may have statue 

or rule that requires the involvement of various 

stakeholders:

• State Election Commission

• Secretary of State

• State Elections Office

• State Procurement

• State Attorney General

• Legislature

• County election officials
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• Municipal election officials

• Project Manager(s)

• Voter advocacy groups

• Vendor(s)

• Political parties

• Academic researchers

• Citizens

• Testing Authority/Lab

• Other 

Without clearly defined roles and 

responsibilities, the project will experience 

confusion regarding these roles, gaps in effort

resulting in unmet deliverables, duplication of 

effort resulting in cost overruns, turf wars 

without methods of resolution, missed 

deadlines, lost momentum and damaged 

credibility of participants, and finally an 

ineffective voting system.

Make sure all appropriate stakeholders are 

identified early on in project planning. Map and 

validate the roles and responsibilities of each 

stakeholder or stakeholder group. Identify how 

efforts will be coordinated and corrected (if 

need be). Expectations for communication 

among stakeholders must be clearly stated. 

Institute an effective record keeping process. 

Finally, look for unintended consequences in all 

decisions.

3. Determine the true cost of 

ownership of a voting system.

Determining the cost of ownership of a voting 

system is not easy. The true cost is the cost to 

purchase or lease, operate, and maintain a 

voting system over its life span. It’s probably 

more than you think. It is probably more than 

you have in the budget. Contemporary pricing 

structure for voting systems may shift costs 

around – they may be front-loaded into the 

purchase, back-load, or deferred. They may 

shift costs of operation and maintenance of the 

system onto third-parties. Know how the 

vendor(s) plan to be profitable on this contract. 

Vendors need to make a profit on the sale of 

your system so that they will be around to 

maintain it after the sale. Know your options for 

leasing the system and determine the cost 

benefits of leasing compared to purchasing. 

A potentially significant cost of acquiring a 

voting system is the cost to modify other 

systems within the elections space to 

accommodate a new (or modified) voting 

system. Make sure you evaluate the potential 

impact of a new voting system on all existing 

systems.

4. RFIs, RFPs, and Contracts are your 

best friend.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) (and related 

Requests For Information, [RFI]) is your first,

last, and best chance to get the system 

requirements right. Systems are rarely better

than the RFPs used to define the requirements 

for that system. A good RFP gives you the legal 

leverage to ensure the system does what you 

need. RFPs are widely available – ask other

states or check with the EAC’s State Information 

page of their web site

http://www.eac.gov/testing_and_certification/s

tate_information/ for examples from other 

states. Don’t feel like you have to invent the 

wheel. Learn from other jurisdiction’s 

experience. Don’t be afraid to start over if you 

get it wrong.
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5. Changing voting systems has to 

occur while you are conducting 

elections on your old system

Changing a voting system is like changing tires 

on the bus...without stopping. We know that 

every election has a six-month run-up and a 

one-month follow-up. If you change voting 

systems, at some point you will be running two 

or more systems concurrently. A transition plan 

will allow the seamless migration from the old 

system to the new system, with minimum 

disruption.

Vendor roles may change once their system is 

no longer in use. Jurisdictions that are heavily 

dependent upon their vendor may find that 

relationship changed if they are not favored 

with the order for the new system. You may be 

managing two vendor relationships 

concurrently.

Retiring the old system will require you to 

unfreeze every procedure related to the 

preparation, operation and maintenance of 

your voting system, change those procedures, 

and then refreeze them. Look for opportunities 

to improve direct and supporting processes in 

the deployment of the new system.

You will need to evaluate new space, security 

requirements, and operating requirements of

the new system. Do not assume that new 

systems can be effectively and securely stored 

in existing storage spaces. You will need to plan 

for the delivery and acceptance testing of the 

new system – while still storing the old system.

Finally, consider the legal and security 

requirements for disposing of the old system’s 

data and media. Many old systems will have 

archived election data stored internally or on 

media. Most vendors will not permit the sale of 

used equipment that contains their proprietary 

or licensed software.

6. The largest investment you will 

make is education and training.

Consider how you will duplicate or improve the 

levels of efficiency and effectiveness in your 

election officials, poll managers, poll workers, 

system maintenance specialists, election 

programmers, and voters, with the new system. 

Have clearly defined learning outcomes and 

demonstrated skill levels for each stakeholder 

impacted by the new system. Budget for 

training and evaluate the effectiveness of the 

training.

7. What is the life span of the new 

system?

The selection process should reveal how long 

the system is expected to last and what is 

required to achieve that longevity. Commercial 

Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components may impact 

the longevity of the voting system – both 

negatively and positively. COTS components 

may be acceptable substitutes for obsoleted 

system components. COTS components may 

also have an accelerated obsolescence schedule 

and may not be forward and backward 

compatible with other components of the 

system.

Identify circumstances that can shorten the life 

of the system: changes in statute and rule that 

require the system to do something it cannot, 

supply chain issues, an under-capitalized vendor

or inexperienced vendor, a poorly structured 

contract, and a rigid system architecture that 

resists updates and needed modifications.
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8. All voting systems are multi-modal.

All modern voting systems are capable of 

central count vote-by-mail solutions, precinct 

count solutions, election system integration and 

all have accessibility (vision-, hearing- and 

mobility-impaired voter) solutions. Over the life 

span of the system it may shift its emphasis 

from one mode to another. Make sure that 

your new voting system is not constrained to a 

single mode of operation. It will shorten its life.

Evaluate any candidate voting systems against 

known and potential requirements for that 

system. Don’t build obsolescence into the 

system.

9. Have a vendor management 

strategy.

Elections are complex events that require the 

coordination of multiple vendors: voting 

system providers, ballot printers, voter 

registration system providers, electronic 

pollbook providers, etc. If you do not manage 

the vendors, they will manage you. If you have 

multiple vendors working in the same space, 

they will naturally attempt to prioritize their 

system’s requirements and force compromises 

and blame for failure on the other vendors. 

Manage the vendors (and their systems) like a 

portfolio. The goal is find the best outcome for 

the aggregation of systems.

10.Know the Known Unknowns.

There is a large and growing body of knowledge 

about emerging trends in election 

administration and the risks and threats to the 

integrity of elections. Many of these risks are 

emerging and few are quantified to the extent 

that they can be plugged into risk mitigation 

models. Know the key issues and know their 

relevance to your jurisdiction and its 

circumstances. Set your priorities for making 

tradeoffs if necessary. A short list of these 

issues include: security, accessibility, 

auditability, usability, voter convenience, 

transparency of process, and testing and 

certification practices. 

The EAC, NIST, NASED, and other organizations 

regularly publish information on these topics 

and more.