Caldwell County, Texas

Caldwell County's Voting System

The voting system includes ExpressVote ballot marking devices and DS200 digital scan precinct tabulators to be available at every Caldwell County polling location, as well as DS450 central high-speed digital scanners and tabulators to be used in Central Count to tabulate ballots received by mail. With the voting system, voters will receive a blank ballot at check-in to insert into the ExpressVote ballot marking device and make their selections.

After reviewing their selections on the screen, voters will print the ballot. Once voters have reviewed the selections printed on the ballot, they will insert the ballot into the DS200 digital scanner for tabulation.

This hybrid system allows for the convenience and accuracy of electronic voting, as well as the security of an auditable paper ballot that can be used for manual recounts.

ES&S Company Overview: "Our vision at Election Systems & Software (ES&S) is simple and unwavering — we provide products and services of exceptional quality and value to maintain voter confidence and enhance the voting experience. We accomplish this through continuous investments in research and development, resulting in regular product updates and security enhancements for each voting system we design, build, sell and support."

"The ES&S mission is to provide valuable, trusted, and proven election systems and services to our nation’s election administrators. Our teams of passionate, knowledgeable, and talented election professionals across North America accomplish our mission by delivering the highest standards of accuracy, security, and reliability."

ExpressVote

Ballot Marking Device

The ExpressVote uses touchscreen technology that produces a paper-based ballot tabulation. As a marking device, ExpressVote handles the entire marking process, eliminating marginal marks and the need for interpretation of the voter's mark. Voters will receive an activation card (ballot) with their ballot style printed on the card to begin the process. Voters will insert an ExpressVote ballot card into the marking device, make their selections, verify the selections made, and print the ballot. Voters then review the selections printed on the ballot for accuracy before taking the ballot over the DS200 for tabulation.

DS200

Ballot Marking Device

The DS200 is a polling location-based scanner and vote tabulator that combines the flexibility and efficiency of digital-imaging technology to support paper-based voting -- taking traditional optical-scan ballot vote tabulation into the twenty-first century.

DS450

High-Speed Digital Scanner and Tabulator

The DS450 high-speed central scanner and vote tabulator is the fastest central scanner in the election industry. The system is used at Central Count to tabulate ballots received by mail. The DS450 continuously scans and intelligently sorts ballots with its high-speed digital image processing, saving election staff valuable time when tabulating results

Voter Resources

Casting Vote on the DS200

Voting on ExpressVote

How are Ballots Counted?

Company Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Universal Voting

"ES&S follows all ADA requirements and works with voters with disabilities as well as advocates and experts in the field of accessibility to test our equipment firsthand. This valuable feedback helps guide our product development teams, and in turn, ensures EVERY voter can exercise their constitutional right to vote with anonymity on a universal voting system. To protect voter privacy, the printed vote summary card does not specify whether assistive devices were used to conduct a voting session."

Learn more about how ES&S ensures accessibility here.

Security

Learn about the six layers of security that protect ES&S voting systems – from physical security to encryption to verifiable audit trails.

How ES&S tests their voting systems

Systems are tested according to the guidelines set by the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC). According to the EAC, its purpose is “to independently verify that voting systems comply with the functional capabilities, accessibility and security requirements necessary to ensure the integrity and reliability of voting system operation, as established in the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG).” The ES&S testing protocol also involves testing by independent, accredited laboratories and employ encryption and digital signing for all data in transit using cryptographic modules that meet the Federal Information Processing Standard.

Certification of Voting Systems

All voting systems must be certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), created by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002.
The Texas Election Code requires all voting systems to be approved by the Secretary of State before they may be used in any Texas election.

Key Facts on Security of Voting Machines

Voting machines in Texas are not connected to the internet. In order to be certified in Texas, the machines cannot even have the capability of connecting to the internet.
Electronic pollbooks certified by the Texas SOS are connected to the internet, but they are never connected to any device that casts or tabulates votes.
Only software certified by the Texas SOS can be loaded on voting equipment. As an added security measure, Texas law requires software to go through a hash validation process to verify that the source code of any voting software was not altered in any way.
All voting machines are required to be tested for logic and accuracy three times – twice before each election, and once immediately after.