After the Texas Secretary of State quietly decertified the Election Systems & Software (ES&S) electronic poll books in December, the Dallas County Commissioners Court voted for a $7.6 million contract to replace these with KnowInk, LLC, E-poll books this month.
The electronic systems check in registered voters who show up at the polls to cast their ballots. Since Texas has countywide polling, where citizens can vote at any polling location in their home county, the electronic systems continually update the records of anyone who has already voted, stopping anyone who attempts to vote multiple times.
Dallas County experienced several problems with the ES&S E-poll books on the first day of early voting in the 2024 General Election.
Keith Ingram, Texas’ former director of elections, approved a previous version of the Knowink Poll Pad system on January 23, 2020. Christina Adkins, the current director, approved an updated version on August 21, 2024, the same day she approved the now-decertified ES&S E-poll books.
According to the decertification letter issued only four months after the initial certification, the ES&S e-pollbook system failed seven technical and three functional standards.
Testing lab Pro Verification & Validation, Inc. (Pro V&V) certified E-poll books for ES&S and KnowInk, LLC to comply with Texas’ technical standards.
Texas Scorecard’s report on ES&S’ decertification this month noted that Pro V&V had a “largely defunct website.” Over the past few weeks, however, some bloggers have observed the testing lab’s website continued degradation.
As of today, its website is completely down.
Advancing Integrity Director Christine Welborn, an advocate for accurate and accountable elections, had stated, “The only real fix for this is we have to go back to precinct-based voting. People have really lost confidence in the electronic poll books, and counties need the ability to choose paper poll books.”
Plank 221 of the Republican Party of Texas platform advocates precinct-only voting and paper poll books, which would eliminate countywide e-poll book systems—and, by extension, countywide voting.
State Rep. Steve Toth (R-Conroe) recently introduced a bill to eliminate countywide voting and e-poll books.
State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) also filed similar legislation.
Yet the all-Republican Rockwall County Commissioners Court, a county affected by ES&S’ decertification and located in Hall’s district, passed a resolution in late January opposing the elimination of countywide voting. The county reportedly used ES&S equipment for two years and spent more than $50,000 on the e-poll book system.
Even the far-left Brennan Center for Justice has advocated for a middle-ground approach, stating that “polling places using E-poll books should also have paper backup copies of the qualified voter file on hand in the event of a loss of power or other problems.”
With municipal elections just 10 weeks away, affected counties must either replace the decertified systems with a new vendor or wait for an ES&S update, which the SOS must first approve. Counties would also need to train election workers, creating a tight deadline.
