It is our pleasure to spotlight Herb Deutsch, Software Product Manager with ES&S this month. Herb has worked in elections and with ES&S for 40 years, truly making an impact in our industry! Herb has been involved with the design, development, certification, installation and support of over ten voting systems, including:
- Video Voter (observed by many as the first Direct Recording Device DRE)
- M100 optical scan precinct tabulators and M650 optical scan central tabulators
- iVotronic touchscreen DRE
- AutoMARK ballot marking device
He has also guided the development and enhancement of our Unity software suite, the AIMS software for AutoMARK and has received several patents as a part of these product development efforts.
Before bringing his talents to the elections industry, Herb worked for eight years at IBM, developing computer voice output systems and serial pulse time- division multiplexed communication systems for which he received several patents and an IBM Outstanding Invention award. He spent the next seven years as a development manager at Terminal Communications Inc. where he was responsible for the development of the TR32, a digital PABX and the Video Voter, picking up additional patents along the way.
Herb received his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the City College of New York in 1961, completed all coursework for a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at Syracuse and is a life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), having served as Chair of their P1583 Voting Systems Standards Committee.
Marketing interviewed both Gary Weber, Herb’s current manager and Herb Deutsch himself for this piece.
Gary Weber
When did you first begin working with Herb? Back in 86’ around the time of the Business Records Corporation (BRC) acquisition of Computer Election Systems (CES).
What do you enjoy most about working with Herb? Number one would have to be Herb’s ability to remember the specifics around virtually every election challenge we’ve ever encountered. His recollection spans years and he finds ways for us to achieve success.
What’s one word to describe Herb? Dedicated.
How does Herb make your team stronger? He has in the past and continues to share his extensive elections industry knowledge with everyone. He will take the time to explain the most unique aspects of our business. I really rely on him as my go-to guy for elections.
If he ever hangs it up before I do, I will miss that election knowledge crutch he has provided us all through the years.
Herb Deutsch
What do you like most about working in the elections industry? It’s always been a challenge. Things always change so it’s interesting and exciting.
I’m technically 10 years past my retirement but my job is my hobby; why would I quit if I’m having fun at work?
If you didn’t work in elections what would you be doing? By trade, I’m an electronics engineer and my children work in medicine. I’d probably be finding ways to apply electronic solutions to the medical industry.
What has been your favorite product or implementation to work on? I’m really proud of the Elpac tabulator system. It was a microprocessor based punch card system that competed against CES in the beginning. It was used throughout the country which was a big deal for a little company in Chicago.
What has been one of the biggest changes you’ve observed during your time in the elections industry? The way certification has evolved — from state level to federal certifications in the 1990s. Initially just tabulators had to be certified then in 2002 certifications switched to whole systems. It was a major evolution to ensure voting system security.
When not supporting democracy, how do you spend your time? Doing things that are challenging to the mind. I usually do a Sudoku a day. I also enjoy games that make you think and watching movies when I need to zone out a bit.
Do you have any interesting site support stories? Back in the Video Voter days there was a particular jurisdiction I was supporting. They were experiencing some electrical problems which caused everything to shut down. The police there at the time yanked all the cords out of the data center boxes and essentially commandeered the machines. Since they weren’t plugged into anything the batteries of course died. They then hired an electronics expert to try and retrieve the votes on the units but they were lost due to the battery drainage. The building then burned down the next day due to an electrical fire. Fortunately, voting systems have advanced in ways that votes are retrievable no matter what happens to batteries or the electricity.
What’s something people at ES&S may not know about you? I have three kids who live all over the world. My daughter lives in Africa and I recently went on safari there and celebrated my granddaughter’s birthday. I have pictures up on the L: drive.