The Joint Election Equipment Specifications and Standards Committee in Georgia met with two vendors, Tenex Software Solutions and Democracy Live and Hewlett-Packard, to discuss their election equipment and inform the state's new election system.
The committee's goal is to ensure elections are "totally secure and totally safe". Tenex Software Solutions presented its ePollbook, which works with hand-marked paper ballots, and emphasized the importance of cybersecurity and accessibility in its software.
The company's president, Ravi Kallem, highlighted that their system is designed to be resilient and capable of supporting larger jurisdictions, such as the state of Georgia. The committee members, including state Sen. Bo Hatchett, asked questions about the security of the vendor's poll book, including concerns about double voting and verifying voter identities.
Kallem replied that the company makes the voting record available to voters in an "auditable kind of format", which addresses some of these concerns. The committee is expected to issue a report on the state's new election system, and the vendors' presentations are part of this process.
The committee's co-chairs, state Sen. Max Burns and state Rep. Victor Anderson, are leading the effort to inform the state's new election system.