United States, Boca Raton – February 15, 2023 – With the new Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG 2.0) recently approved by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) opening a pathway for election system innovation, Smartmatic today introduced its new line of election technology. The system is designed from the ground up to be compliant with the new Guidelines. The product line is available for election jurisdictions to begin previewing immediately.
Highlighting Smartmatic’s role as the world leader in cybersecurity for elections, Smartmatic’s CEO Antonio Mugica emphasized, “the system meets the highest security standards and helps achieve top-notch levels of accuracy and efficiency in administering elections.” He noted, “the technology is scalable to meet the needs of every jurisdiction, and will satisfy election officials with intuitive, uncomplicated operation while delivering a pleasing experience to voters.”
An addition to the company’s US portfolio, the line includes a ballot marking device (BMD), an optical ballot scanner for precincts (PCOS), an optical scanner for centralized counting facilities (CCOS), and Smartmatic’s Election Management System software (EMS), which helps officials streamline many aspects of election administration. The launch took place in Washington, DC, at the annual winter conference for the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS).
According to Smartmatic’s Director of US Operations James Long, the certification testing process is in progress with ProV&V labs, one of the EAC’s accredited testing laboratories. He noted, “Smartmatic is the first company to submit voting technology for US federal certification under the Election Assistance Commission’s new Guidelines.”
Adaptable to the preferences of individual jurisdictions, large or small, the future-proofed devices are designed for auditability, election integrity and outstanding voter experiences.
The line is available as a full system or as individual components. Click here for more details.
The components’ designs are based on four pillars:
- VVSG 2.0 compliance – meeting or exceeding all standards set the by the Election Asistance Commission (EAC).
- Cybersecurity – technology designed to be secure and securely integrate with election orgnizations’ legacy systems.
- User-centered design – intuitive operation for voters and election workers, so workers can operate them with minimal training.
- Private, independent voting – accessible for all voters, regardless of ability, so everyone participate equally in elections.
Smartmatic pioneered many of the principles now enshrined in VVSG 2.0 and has been advancing those tenets in its solutions, including:
- Use of exploit-mitigation technologies
- Cryptographic boot verification
- Software verification for installation
- Authenticated operating system updates
- Multi-factor authentication for critical operations
- Multi-factor authentication for administrators
- Randomized vote sequence
VVSG 2.0 is the fifth iteration of national level voting system standards in the US, which provide basic requirements against which voting systems can be tested for functionality, accessibility and security. The Guidelines were designed to meet the challenges ahead to improve the voter experience, and provide necessary safeguards to protect the integrity of the voting process.
Smartmatic is the world’s leading elections and voting technology and services company. Since forming in 2000, it has processed 6.5 billion votes without a security breach in elections on five continents.
