PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Department of State has reached a settlement with the state’s voting machine vendor over a series of programming errors that came to light during the 2022 primaries.
As part of the settlement, Election Systems and Software LLC will provide a credit totaling $47,644 for all project management services provided for the primaries and agreed to post a public statement online, said Secretary of State Nellie M. Gorbea on Thursday.
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“I am pleased with the resolution that we have reached with ES&S in this matter,” said Gorbea. “We have held our vendor accountable for their mistake, and working together we have succeeded in making systemic improvements to pre-election testing across my office, the Board of Elections and ES&S.”
During early voting in the days leading up to the Sept. 13 primary elections, several ExpressVote machines displayed a series of errors in the Spanish-language ballots, including the listing of wrong candidates and the misspelling of a candidate’s name. Election Systems & Software, the machines’ private vendor, took responsibility for the errors and later worked closely with the state to ensure better testing procedures before the Nov. 8 general election.
At a Sept. 7 meeting, the board addressed the mistakes and said it would implement stricter verification protocols in the future in collaboration with the secretary of state and the machine vendor. In October, the R.I. Board of Elections unanimously approved a new set of protocols for the testing of voting machines ahead of the general election.
The new written protocols, which were created collaboratively by the R.I. Board of Elections, the R.I. Secretary of State’s Office and the staff from machine vendor Election Systems & Software, added multiple verification steps at various levels of testing from the entities involved.
In the public statement posted on its website, Election Systems & Software reiterated its recommendations for machine testing, which include Logic & Accuracy testing, which “increases confidence in elections.”
The process includes “proofing all of your ballot styles, both paper and touch screen, for accuracy in layout and contests” and testing the tabulation equipment by using “a test deck of ballots and/or ExpressVote vote summary cards containing votes for each candidate and questions in all contests, and where the expected results are known.” Election Systems & Software said the company is available to provide consultation, best-practice guidance, and technical and testing support.
Chris Hunter, a spokesperson for the R.I. Board of Elections, said the board was “pleased to see that a resolution has been reached in this matter,” and that the new protocols adopted in October were created to ensure the errors discovered during early voting do not happen again.
Claudia Chiappa is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Chiappa@PBN.com.
(Update: Comment from R.I. Board of Elections added in 9th paragraph)
