{{Short description|Digital register of voters}} {{More citations needed|date=December 2009}} {{Electiontech}} An '''electronic pollbook''', also known as an '''e-pollbook''', is typically either hardware, software or a combination of the two that allows election officials to review and/or maintain voter register information for an election, but does not actually count votes.<ref> Electronic Poll Books https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/electronic-pollbooks.aspx</ref> This software or hardware is used in place of paper-based pollbooks, which are typically three-ring binders. Often, the functions of an e-pollbook include voter lookup, verification, identification, precinct assignment, ballot assignment, voter history update and other functions such as name change, address change and/or redirecting voters to correct voting location.
When voters have a choice of multiple vote centers where they may vote, e-pollbooks communicating over the internet can prevent a voter from voting more than once.<ref name="oc">{{Cite web |last=Orange County Registrar of Voters |date=2017-04-02 |title=Voter's Choice Act Versus Traditional Election Models |url=https://www.caceo58.org/assets/documents/votecenterbriefingdocumentfinal.pdf |website= California Association of Clerks and Elections Officials}}</ref>
Where e-pollbooks are deployed, they have consolidated broad data (from entire city, county and/or federated state) into usable information at a polling place and have replaced a paper-based system or complemented the paper processes. This consolidation has replaced or supplemented a manual process, usually a telephone call, from a precinct back to the local or regional board of elections. Normally, the information handled by an e-pollbook is public information that can be found in public or online.
More jurisdictions are adopting electronic pollbooks in place of paper-based pollbooks. For example, in January 2014, the City of Chicago reached an agreement with Election Systems & Software <ref>Election Systems & Software [http://www.essvote.com We Support Elections]</ref> to provide more than 2,100 ExpressPoll voter check-in and verification devices to support the city's 1.6 million registered voters.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://article.wn.com/view/2014/04/16/After_Primary_Election_Success_with_Electronic_Poll_Books_Ch/|title=After Primary Election Success with Electronic Poll Books_ Chicago and ES&S Look Ahead to November|website=article.wn.com}}</ref> The e-pollbook system was first used in Chicago's 2014 primary elections.
As of 2020, KnowInk and Election Systems & Software had the most market share for e-pollbooks in the United States.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Zetter |first=Kim |author-link=Kim Zetter |date=2020-08-31 |title=The election security hole everyone ignores |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/31/election-security-hole-406471 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904163719/https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/31/election-security-hole-406471 |archive-date=2020-09-04 |access-date=2025-10-15 |website=Politico |language=en}}</ref>
==Issues==
In 2023 a contractor, WSD Digital, developing a voter registration and e-pollbook system for New Hampshire put in code to link to websites in Russia and used open source software managed by a Russian. New Hampshire found those issues by hiring another company, ReversingLabs, to review the code of the first company.<ref name="sakel">{{Cite web |last=Sakellariadis |first=John |date=2024-09-01 |title=Hacking blind spot: States struggle to vet coders of election software |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/01/us-election-software-national-security-threats-00176615 |website=Politico}}</ref>
In 2020 Williamson County TX found two problems: that its use of e-pollbooks sometimes assigned the wrong ballot style to voters, so they voted on contests outside their area, and did not vote on contests in their own area; and that some ballots did not display the voters' precincts.<ref name="appel23">{{Cite news |last=Appel |first=Andrew |date=2023-02-17 |title=Unrecoverable Election Screwup in Williamson County TX |url=https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2023/02/16/unrecoverable-election-screwup-in-williamson-county-tx/ |access-date=2023-02-17 |newspaper=Freedom to Tinker |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2006, at least two vendors had problems with e-pollbooks, including Diebold in Maryland in September 2006<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,213690,00.html |title=Maryland Election Glitches Prompt Investigation |publisher=Fox News |date=2006-09-13 |accessdate=2009-12-22 }}</ref> and Sequoia Voting Systems in Denver, Colorado in November 2006.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4668163 |title="Shocking" election omission |publisher=The Denver Post |date=2006-11-16 |accessdate=2009-12-22 |first=Katy |last=Human }}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Electronic Pollbook}} Category:Election technology Category:Elections
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