We are extremely excited to announce that the State of Utah has designated ES&S as the state’s election management vendor of choice. After their assessment of FIVE different election systems vendors, the State’s evaluation committee determined that we will provide the best value to the State.
Utah Lieutenant Governor, Spencer J. Cox said it best …
“Through a careful and thorough procurement process, the state of Utah has chosen ES&S to lead Utah into the next generation of voting equipment. ES&S offers a wide range of voting equipment options, and I’m confident their secure and innovative election solutions will fit the needs of each county.”
The evaluation committee was comprised of representatives from the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office and various counties across the State of Utah, as well as a representative for Voters with Disabilities — and to ensure that the process outlined in the State’s Procurement Code was followed, a representative from the State’s Division of Purchasing, who served as a non-voting member of the evaluation committee, also attended the committee meetings.
The evaluation committee’s extensive assessment noted the following about our solution:
- Our Election Management System provides a more efficient and intuitive process for ballot layout and design, as well as import and export capabilities that facilitate the exchange of data with Utah’s statewide voter registration system.
- We offer a solid tabulation solution for EVERY Utah county, including those that have adopted a full vote by mail process, as well as assorted options for scanning and tabulating paper ballots for counties from small to large.
- Our high-speed tabulators will significantly speed ballot processing time and provide an efficient process for adjudicating ballots that cannot immediately be scanned (blank ballots, write-ins, ballots where a voter has marked more than the acceptable number of candidates, or ballots that are otherwise unreadable by the scanners).
- Our accessible voting solution combines paper-based voting with touch-screen technology to meet the needs of voters with disabilities as well as provide a permanent paper record, as required by Utah statute.
- We are a well-established company with a good reputation amongst election officials throughout the country and are best positioned to be able to support a roll-out of new equipment in multiple counties in Utah simultaneously. We have supported multiple statewide implementations of new voting equipment in the past and nationwide.
- We provide support and maintenance plans at different levels of service and price points so that counties can select the option that best meets their individual needs.
Even after all that justification, it’s our opinion that the most important endorsement came from the citizens of Utah. The survey results gathered after a public demonstration of each vendor’s proposed voting system revealed that the public felt our equipment was easy to use and they were confident in our system.
“We are honored to partner with the State of Utah,” ES&S President & CEO, Tom Burt said. “We take great pride in providing high-quality products and services to maintain voter confidence and enhance the voting experience. We look forward to a successful and long-term partnership with the Utah election community.”