VA Pollbook Switch Appears to Violate Election Certification
Exclusive: Email releases show that election officials were aware of the risks back in April about DemTech's murky status as a provider of pollbook software for voting.
In this edition of EPEC Team News:
—Who is Running the Pollbooks for Elections in Virginia?
—Countable Ballots Already in the DAL
Emails: Pollbook Vendor DemTech Appears to Violate Election Certification
A major vendor of electronic poll book software across Virginia appears to have violated state certification standards after it abruptly ended support agreements in early 2024.
The finding raises questions about whether localities running DemTech software are properly certified with days to go before early voting.
The revelations are part of a batch of newly released emails from state election officials in which working groups were discussing DemTech, a vendor for thousands of voting precincts across Virginia, and its abrupt end of service on its contracts, leaving election officials scrambling.
Based on the emails, DemTech appears to have violated the certification standards by changing out support agreements with no apparent notification to Virginia’s Department of Elections (‘ELECT’) or localities.
“All DemTech/Civix personnel in Virginia have had their contracts terminated effective immediately,” wrote Ricky Keech, Deputy Director of Elections for Loudoun County, in an email chain to an elections working group, in April of 2024.
EPEC Team obtained the emails as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Keech’s email to the working group, which cc-ed dozens of locality election officials across Virginia, continued:
I’ve been in communication with [Commissioner] Susan Beals at ELECT and emailed the VP of Customer Experience with Civix. I got a response from Civix just now and he informed me that communication will be going to all VA accounts today with information on how support will be handled going forward. My recommendation to each of you is to IMMEDIATELY put any issues, questions, existing support tickets, etc. into that new system so they are aware of the scope of what is needed/expected. I have clearly communicated to Civix that we fully expect the level of service we’ve come to expect to continue.
For now, please stay calm, we fully expect that among our group we have the expertise needed to get through this election while we wait for the dust to settle. VRAV [Voter Registrars Association of Virginia] and ELECT are already putting together a steering group to discuss the path forward and ensure that everyone is successful. We all know that we can do anything we put our minds to!
The email release arrives months after rumors began swirling about DemTech’s status, especially after its website appeared to go offline in April with no explanation.
Repeated emails and phone calls from EPEC Team to DemTech contacts asking about their status and the company’s certification were not returned.
Other election officials on the email chain asked: Is Civix pulling out of Virginia?
The question is relevant to election officials who oversee vendors for poll books that are used to check in voters. Early voting in Virginia starts in one week, Sept. 20.
Who is Certified? DemTech or Citrix?
The emails released in the FOIA request raise questions about whether DemTech or its subsidiary owners are in violation of certification standards set forth by the State Board of Elections.
The handbook and statutes are clear about vendors who do not comply with the standards upon which they were certified: they must be de-certified.
Details about the ownership structure of DemTech and Civix are unclear.
In August of 2023, Civix, which describes itself as a leading public sector software and services firm, announced that it had sold its Critical Infrastructure division to Modaxo Inc. (“Modaxo”), “a global technology organization focused on moving the world’s people.” Modaxo appears to be headquartered in Canada.
The Civix statement said:
The sale is part of Civix’s strategy to focus on its core business serving state and local governments. It will enable Civix to reinvest resources and capital into its team of public sector experts and suite of government technologies.
Since rebranding as Civix in 2020, the company has made significant investments in meeting the evolving needs of state and local governments. It opened a Center of Excellence in Heathrow, Fla. with all the features of a major software development firm focused exclusively on innovation in GovTech.
It integrated DemTech’s full suite of software into the Civix Elections Management Platform to create an end-to-end system. And it deepened its bench of former public servants, information security professionals, and government technology experts.
If DemTech has turned over all of its servicing capability to Civix, as the emails suggest, it would appear they did so without notifying ELECT or municipalities.
Loudoun County is among an estimated 92 localities across Virginia that list DemTech as their pollbook provider, per VerifiedVoting.org, a nonprofit firm that tracks election equipment across the United States. (See screenshot below.)
According to Loudoun County’s website: DemTech’s electronic pollbook system was certified as meeting the revised certification standards by the Virginia State Board of Elections on September 18, 2020.
As stated in the Electronic Pollbook Certification Standard published by ELECT:
“Any modification to the hardware, software, firmware, infrastructure or any component of a certified EPB will invalidate the prior certification unless ELECT can review and provide an assurance to the SBE that the change does not affect the accuracy, reliability, security, usability or accessibility of the system.”
EPEC Team will keep reporting out the findings and ask for answers about whether the software that has been certified for elections fulfills the state’s own standards. #
—Records Already in Countable Status Before Early Voting
According to the Daily Absentee List (DAL) feed for the upcoming 2024 election, 29 election records appear to be placed into a “countable” state.
EPEC Team has reached out to election officials to ask: Is this a testing sample to ensure the election feeds are working? Will they be zeroed out before Friday, Sept. 20?
It may be part of the testing that many localities are undergoing before the voting begins. #
Editor’s note: EPEC Team updated this story to add another screenshot of localities that run DemTech software in polling books.