Election Day Underway After Over 20% of OC Voters Cast Early Ballots
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
Poll worker explains the new voting process to voters at the Mission Viejo Orange County Islamic Foundation on Feb. 29, 2020.
More than 90 percent of the early ballots – totaling about 354,000 – were cast by mail, after all 1.6 million registered voters in OC received mail-in ballots a month before the election. As of Sunday, about 10 percent of early ballots – 27,700 – had been cast in-person through vote centers.
The surge in mail-in ballots received before Election Day is in part prompted by changes to the voting process starting with this election. Namely, every registered voter has received a mail-in ballot and the county has replaced 1,200 traditional polling sites with 188 vote centers where ballots can be cast in-person days before the election.
Click here to read Voice of OC’s guide to all races on the March 2020 ballot.
Below is a photo gallery of early in-person voting over the last few days in Orange County.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
Tyrone uses the electronic pad to check in voters at a vote center at Warner Ave. and Fairview St. in Santa Ana on Monday, March 2, 2020.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
John Flyn, 41, checks in a voter on a slow Saturday afternoon at Las Lomas Community Park and Community Center in Irvine on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. This is his first election serving as a poll worker.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
Las Lomas Community Park and Community Center in Irvine, shares their parking lot with voters. A family strolls by to enjoy the park amenities on the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 29. 2020.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
A Mission Viejo voter fills out a ballot at the Orange County Islamic Foundation on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
The empty voting booths midday at a Santa Ana vote center.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
A poll worker waits for voters on quiet afternoon on Saturday Feb. 29 2020 in Mission Viejo.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
The final step of casting a ballot requires the voter to scan their ballot, facing either way, and it is electronically processed.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
Jaime Wipe, 65, plays some basketball outside of a voting center at El Salvador Park. He casted his vote in Costa Mesa.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
The entrance to the voting center located in a strip mall in Santa Ana on the corner of Warner and Fairview.
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
A voting sticker is provided for all voters.
ROBERT LEE, Texas, March 2- Coke County will adopt the Verity® Voting system from longtime election partner Hart InterCivic, bringing best-in-industry security and the easiest to use system to their voters well before the Presidential Election in November.
“We are proud that Coke County has chosen Verity. Verity is designed and manufactured in Texas, and we value our relationships with fellow Texans,” said Julie Mathis, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions.
First federally certified in May 2015, Verity includes an array of thoughtful advantages for Coke County:
- Best-in-industry security protocols to safeguard the sanctity of the vote, including encryption, two-factor authentication, and redundant data storage.
- Easiest to use system for voters and election officials, with plain-language instructions and consistently user-friendly software and hardware design.
- Comprehensive suite of accessibility features to ensure an independent and equal voting experience for all voters.
- Highest return on county investment because Verity is a modern hardware and software platform, and not an extension of a voting system made over 15 years ago.
- Compact, lightweight polling place devices that save storage and transportation costs.
More than half of the voters in Texas cast their ballots on Hart’s voting systems and more counties are expected to choose Hart over the less-experienced competition.
“Coke County is prioritizing voter confidence and election security – they know Verity delivers. We appreciate the confidence they show in our solutions and staff,” said Mathis, “They are investing in secure and efficient elections for many years to come, and we look forward to supporting them every step of the way.”
HOUSTON, February 20 – When voters in the Spring Branch Independent School District go to the polls for the May board election, they will be the first citizens in Houston, and all of Harris County, to use the new Verity® Voting system from Hart InterCivic, a leading election technology provider in the United States.
The Verity system is a natural upgrade for Spring Branch Independent School District, a Hart customer since 2011.
“Verity is the most up-to-date, secure voting technology available and we are pleased to debut the system for Spring Branch ISD,” said Julie Mathis, CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions.
“We are also working diligently to provide the best voting solutions for all of Harris County, backed by Hart’s exemplary customer service,” she added.
More than half of Texas voters cast their ballots on Hart’s election technology and Verity is the next step for those ready to modernize. It supports in-person electronic voting, in-person paper voting, vote centers and by-mail voting.
Designed and manufactured by Hart in Austin, Texas, Verity is gaining ground in many states as jurisdictions look for new alternatives to aging equipment. Verity delivers secure, transparent elections and the easiest to use system for elections staff, poll workers, and voters alike.
“We are proud to bring Verity to Houston’s Spring Branch ISD. It is secure, trustworthy and a great fit for Texas voters,” Mathis said.
AUSTIN, Texas, February 13, 2020 – The Verity® Voting system from Hart InterCivic is gaining ground as a leading election provider in the United States, with about 40% of new Verity customers leaving competing vendors for Hart.
A survey, conducted in January 2020, of customers who switched from other companies to Verity showed that 93% feel they have had a better overall experience with Hart.
“Not only do our election partners want the most up-to-date, secure voting technology available, they demand and deserve the most responsive customer service. We understand that transitions can be complex, and we provide top-tier professional service to help customers adapt to new technology and processes,” said Julie Mathis, CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions.
“Other election vendors cannot honestly make these claims. Nearly 90% of our customers who have switched say Hart is more responsive and helpful. We are proud of this record, and we’re shooting for 100%.”
Recently, Hart has seen an increase in counties choosing Verity to replace older technology from other vendors.
Canyon County, Idaho, will replace their ES&S system with Verity for the March 10 primary.
“I am tired of Canyon County being the example of elections going badly,” Commissioner Pam White said during the approval process for Verity and quoted in the Idaho Press.
“Canyon County has historically had multiple problems during elections, including late nights of ballot counting — the county finished counting ballots after 3 a.m. one election night in 2018 and at 7 a.m. the next morning in 2017. In 2018, the elections office forgot to count 39 ballots from overseas citizens and active members of the military on election night,” the paper reported.
Verity will eliminate most of the human error that comes with having election poll workers distribute ballots, Haley Hicks, elections supervisor for Canyon County, told the newspaper.
With 94,000 registered voters, Canyon County will rely on Verity Duo, a ballot marking device that tabulates votes from human-verifiable information, not a black box barcode or QR code.
Other systems rely on converting voters’ choices to barcodes to be interpreted by computer, an approach some security officials have questioned. Last year, Colorado banned the use of barcodes for counting votes over security concerns and other jurisdictions are considering similar restrictions.
On Election Day in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, an improperly calibrated barcode system resulted in 26,000 votes in a highly contested race being incorrectly counted. This forced officials to hand count the paper records overnight to determine official results before they could be released to the public.
“We chose to build a product that tabulates votes the right way — our competitors didn’t.” said Jim Canter, Chief Technology Officer at Hart InterCivic.
In North Carolina, a new territory for Hart, Union County also is replacing an aging ES&S system with a Verity paper trail solution. With 147,000 registered voters, Union joins Brunswick, Chatham and Caswell counties in updating to the Hart InterCivic system. Onslow County will test Verity in the primary.
In Texas, where Verity is designed and manufactured, Ward County is the latest jurisdiction to leave ES&S for Hart. Voters in Ward County will hand mark their paper ballots to be counted by Verity’s patented optical scanning system.
“Hart pioneered digital ballot scanning, and Verity protects every step of the election process,” said Mathis. “Verity is a trustworthy, secure election solution backed by Hart’s signature service and reliability. We are proud to deliver what voters need and want.”
Mathis expects more jurisdictions to select Hart’s secure and efficient technology to replace older systems as counties prepare for 2020 elections.
Earlier this month, during a national summit on election administration and security in Washington DC, Hart InterCivic’s director of government affairs, Samuel Derheimer, was elected to serve as Vice Chair of the Election Infrastructure – Sector Coordinating Council (EI-SCC), a group of election technology providers that advises the Dept. of Homeland Security on key issues of election security.
The SCC is comprised of over 30 election-based companies and organizations that meet regularly to discuss best practices and sector-specific policies and strategies to address critical infrastructure security and resilience efforts. The EI-SCC coordinates its work with its counterpart Government Coordinating Council (GCC) which is composed of state and local election officials.
“Over the past two years, the SCC has been a key player in improving the security posture of our national election system,” Derheimer said. “For 2020, we’re going to strengthen the coordinated communication and information sharing that has already made American elections more resilient and continue to build on our partnerships with DHS and the GCC.”
The full executive committee for the EI-SCC in 2020 is:
- Brian Hancock; Chair [Unisyn Voting Solutions]
- Sam Derheimer; Vice-Chair [Hart InterCivic]
- Chris Wlaschin; Immediate Past-Chair [ES&S]
- Ericka Haas [ERIC]
- Maria Bianchi [Democracy Works]
Additional information about the EI-SCC can be found at: https://www.dhs.gov/topic/election-security.
As a founding member of the Election Industry Sector Coordinating Council, Hart InterCivic is proud to be part of a broad-scoped effort – which combines the resources of federal-level security agencies and election officials and private sector election technology companies – to help ensure secure, smooth-running elections in 2020. Please read this joint statement for more information.
Washington DC – January 21, 2020
With the 2020 Presidential election quickly approaching, the nation’s leading election technology providers are teaming with the Department of Homeland Security to help prepare for the upcoming election cycle. The newly formed Elections Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council (SCC) consists of over thirty firms responsible for developing, deploying, protecting and defending our nation’s critical voting infrastructure. SCC members provide key components to the functioning and security of elections, such as voter registration, tabulation, electronic poll books, election night results reporting, ballot printing and online balloting.
With support and sponsorship of the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), SCC members work in collaboration with state and local elections authorities to plan, prepare and share vital information critical to the conduct of elections. The SCC meets throughout the year to share and exchange information critical to maintaining the security and integrity of technologies that power the nation’s voting and elections systems.
In a joint statement, the SCC Executive Committee stated, “The Sector Coordinating Council would like to assure the public that the SCC is working collectively to cooperate, share and exchange information with DHS and the nation’s intelligence community to ensure the integrity and security of our nation’s critical voting infrastructure.”
SCC Executive Committee
Chris Wlachin, SCC Chair (ES&S)
Bryan Finney, Vice-Chair (Democracy Live)
Kay Stimson, (Dominion Voting Systems)
Ericka Haas, (ERIC)
Edwin Smith, (Smartmatic)
SCC BACKGROUND:
In January 2017, DHS designated Elections as Critical Infrastructure. By law, Critical Infrastructure sectors must set up a Government Coordinating Council and a Sector Coordinating Council, among other requirements. The Government Coordinating Council for Election Infrastructure comprises representatives from federal, state, and local governments who oversee elections. The Sector Coordinating Council comprises private entities that develop and deploy portions of the elections infrastructure of the United States. Each Council develops and executes plans for the improvement of the operation and security of election infrastructure through education, communication, coordination, and capacity building.
For further information about the SCC please contact: EISSA@hq.dhs.gov
Hart InterCivic announced today the planned transition of Phillip Braithwaite from the Chief Executive Officer role to Chairman of the Board of Directors. At the same time, Julie Mathis will expand her role and become President and CEO.
Mr. Braithwaite has been with Hart for over 18 years and will continue to lend his experience and leadership in his role as Chairman. Ms. Mathis joined Hart in 2014 as Chief Financial Officer, then expanded her role to include President and will now also become the company’s Chief Executive.
Under the leadership of Mr. Braithwaite and Ms. Mathis, Hart has enjoyed significant growth, nearly doubling the number of customers through sales of Hart’s Verity® Voting system and continuing to set the standard for best-in-class customer satisfaction. Hart remains well positioned for continued growth and market share gains going forward.
“Julie has been a tremendous asset to Hart over these last 5 years.” said Mr. Braithwaite. “Her leadership has driven successes across all company functions. I look forward to supporting Julie in her new role and continuing to participate in Hart’s future growth.”
Ms. Mathis added “I’m excited to have the opportunity to drive more success for our customers and our company and having Phillip’s continued involvement as Chairman adds to the depth and strength of our leadership team.”
Please note: The Interos-published report at the heart of this story states “Interos recognizes the extreme sensitivity of election security matters and has contacted the affected company.” Hart InterCivic has never been contacted by Interos and therefore our system is not the one analyzed in their report. To learn more about how Hart specifically manages supply chain and manufacturing security, click here.
The companies that provide the election equipment and technology used in U.S. elections place the highest importance on supply chain security, and proactively take proven, best-practice measures to ensure the sanctity of Americans’ votes:
- All U.S.-registered voting systems manufacturers provide extensive product sourcing information to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and state election offices as part of the certification/testing process. We also work closely with U.S. election officials and other government partners to test and certify our systems for security, accuracy, and reliability in each and every election.
- Voting systems are routinely subjected to rigorous review, analysis, testing and certification by election authorities at the federal, state, and local levels. Once the system software is certified, any changes would prompt a new round of testing by government authorities. This process helps to ensure that product vulnerabilities are discovered and addressed before any systems are placed into use.
- Voting systems manufacturers work individually and collectively to define reasonable levels of security and associated controls for our supply chains, including requiring sub-contractors and vendors to meet or exceed standards as part of the terms and conditions of our established business agreements. We also employ tools and resources to technically and operationally mitigate risk across the lifecycle of products, from design through disposal.
Interos, a company that sells supply chain management services, recently released a marketing report on the security of the election industry supply chain without conducting any research into the protocols and safeguards currently employed by the industry. The only conclusive statement in the release is that “none of [Interos’] findings indicate that the studied machines are compromised in any way.”
Further, the practice of assessing risk based solely – or even primarily – on the geography of a supplier’s corporate locations is a practice that has been widely discredited. Supply chain risks and threats exist regardless of where a company is located, or where its products are manufactured or assembled. As National Risk Management Center (NRMC) Director Bob Kolasky noted in recent testimony on this subject before Congress, “sources of material influence” must be evident.
The election industry welcomes the guidance of cyber and supply chain security experts and, in many instances, have taken significant steps to implement improved policies as a result of hearing from such experts, such as coordinated vulnerability disclosure programs. However, we caution reliance on the findings of a report that purports to expose risks in supply chain practices yet notes that researchers “did not study the exact origin of individual parts or manufacturing location[s].”
Dominion Voting Systems
Election Systems & Software
Hart InterCivic
Smartmatic
Unisyn Voting Solutions
Hart InterCivic’s Verity Duo technology delivered secure, accurate elections across Texas this past Election Day. Counties throughout the state debuted paper-trail voting systems for the November statewide election. Those choosing Verity Duo from Hart InterCivic reported none of the major equipment issues troubling counties that launched a competing system by an out-of-state vendor.
Despite heavier than expected voter turnout and a process learning curve for voters and poll workers, no Verity Duo device failures or vote-counting delays were reported in the six counties using the newly certified system. Verity Duo is a hybrid voting device that combines a touchscreen with a paper vote record available for recounts or audits. No recounts due to equipment problems were required.
“Thank goodness the equipment worked because everything else was so new too,” said Elections Administrator Cindy Ware in Llano County where a surprising 28% voter turnout kept poll workers busy all Election Day.
“Paper is the right choice for our county and voters are happy with a paper trail,” she said. ““Our commissioners are pleased with the equipment. But everything is new and, of course, there were some growing pains. We managed a turnout three times what I expected. With Hart’s help, we’re fine-tuning our procedures and we should be good for the heavy March primary turnout.”
“Hart is committed to providing top-tier professional service helping our customers refresh their processes as needed to adapt to this new technology. We don’t just show up for an install. We support our counties and their voters at every election, big or small. Today and tomorrow,” said Phillip Braithwaite, CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions. Verity is designed and manufactured in Texas.
“Verity Duo is a transparent, secure choice with modern features. Upgrades can be complex, and we work side-by-side with our partners to assure trustworthy, reliable elections.”
Ware credits the Verity ballot design with mitigating “fleeing voters,” a problem some counties using a different system experienced when voters walked out of the polling place with their ballot instead of feeding their narrow, receipt-shaped ballot into the scanner to record their vote. In Travis County, for example, “fleeing voters” triggered a required recount that delayed final results until 3:45 a.m.
The Verity Duo paper record is a familiar full-sized sheet and does not rely on controversial barcodes to tabulate choices. Each voter verifies their choices and inserts it into the scanner to be counted by Hart’s patented optical scanner.
In Tarrant County, the largest Texas jurisdiction to debut Duo, Elections Administrator Heider Garcia told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “None of the issues that were being discussed (after Election Day) have to do with the equipment. They are all related to the human factor.”
“I feel very comfortable saying that we are going into the 2020 election in better conditions than we had in 2018 with new equipment, improved security, a paper trail for every voter and more voter accessibility with the implementation of the vote centers program.”
In Gregg County, where turnout was triple what was expected, Elections Administrator Kathryn Nealy said there was no delay in getting prompt election results. “We had early voting results by 7:15 and final reports by 9 p.m.,” she said. “That’s what we expect.”
Like others, she agreed that this vote has better prepared her county for the March primaries. “We’ve learned some lessons and we now have a paper-trail system up and running. Our voters like the true touchscreen and the paper-trail puts us where we need to be.”
Learn more about Verity Duo: https://www.hartintercivic.com/product/verityduo/
SONYA QUICK AND 
JULIE LEOPO