As part of its overall commitment to voter confidence and election auditability, every new voting system sold by Hart InterCivic will include an auditable paper ballot. As a direct result, Hart has discontinued the sale of paperless Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) voting systems.

Hart InterCivic recognizes that voter confidence is highest where there is a paper record of every vote, and Hart is committed to taking every step possible to protect America’s trust in our country’s elections. Our decision to include a paper trail in every voting system we sell was primarily driven by Hart’s commitment to developing solutions that support software-independent audits, recounts and risk-limiting audits (RLAs), all of which require a paper-based voting system.

“All Hart InterCivic voting machines are tested and secure, but we believe that focusing our efforts on paper-based voting systems is an important step to further enhance voter confidence,” said Julie Mathis, CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions. “The use of paper-based ballots will lead to increased levels of auditability and usability, as well as provide an extra layer of assurance for voters that their votes are being counted as cast. Voter confidence has been and will remain a top priority for all of us at Hart.”

While existing DRE customers will continue to receive support from Hart, we will also enable customers to transition to a paper-based voting system through the unique versatility of the Verity system. Specifically, Verity DRE customers can choose to return their DRE units to Hart where they can be converted to our paper-based Verity Duo units. These new devices, along with new precinct scanners, will allow jurisdictions to transition quickly and easily to paper-based voting in a conversion process that is more cost effective than the purchase of a full new set of equipment. As an added benefit, the voter selections from the paper ballots produced by the Verity system are not hidden in unreadable barcodes or QR codes, but rather are in human readable form. Verity is the only voting system on the market that provides this assurance that votes are captured based on the same information voters can personally read and review.

Please note: The Interos-published report at the heart of this story states “Interos recognizes the extreme sensitivity of election security matters and has contacted the affected company.” Hart InterCivic has never been contacted by Interos and therefore our system is not the one analyzed in their report.  To learn more about how Hart specifically manages supply chain and manufacturing security, click here.

The companies that provide the election equipment and technology used in U.S. elections place the highest importance on supply chain security, and proactively take proven, best-practice measures to ensure the sanctity of Americans’ votes:

• All U.S.-registered voting systems manufacturers provide extensive product sourcing information to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and state election offices as part of the certification/testing process. We also work closely with U.S. election officials and other government partners to test and certify our systems for security, accuracy, and reliability in each and every election.
• Voting systems are routinely subjected to rigorous review, analysis, testing and certification by election authorities at the federal, state, and local levels. Once the system software is certified, any changes would prompt a new round of testing by government authorities. This process helps to ensure that product vulnerabilities are discovered and addressed before any systems are placed into use.
• Voting systems manufacturers work individually and collectively to define reasonable levels of security and associated controls for our supply chains, including requiring sub-contractors and vendors to meet or exceed standards as part of the terms and conditions of our established business agreements. We also employ tools and  resources to technically and  operationally mitigate risk across the lifecycle of products, from design through disposal.

Interos, a company that sells supply chain management services, recently released a marketing report on the security of the election industry supply chain without conducting any research into the protocols and safeguards currently employed by the industry. The only conclusive statement in the release is that “none of [Interos’] findings indicate that the studied machines are compromised in any way.”

Further, the practice of assessing risk based solely – or even primarily – on the geography of a supplier’s corporate locations is a practice that has been widely discredited. Supply chain risks and threats exist regardless of where a company is located, or where its products are manufactured or assembled. As National Risk Management Center (NRMC) Director Bob Kolasky noted in recent testimony on this subject before Congress, “sources of material influence” must be evident.

The election industry welcomes the guidance of cyber and supply chain security experts and, in many instances, have taken significant steps to implement improved policies as a result of hearing from such experts, such as coordinated vulnerability disclosure programs. However, we caution reliance on the findings of a report that purports to expose risks in supply chain practices yet notes that researchers “did not study the exact origin of individual parts or manufacturing location[s].”

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