The Alexander County Board of Elections will conduct a simulated election event as part of the process to upgrade its current voting system. Testing will begin on Thursday, April 24 at 9:00 a.m. in the conference room at the Alexander County Services Center, located at 151 West Main Avenue in Taylorsville.
Elections Director Patrick Wike said that any interested persons may observe the testing of the voting system but shall not interfere with or impede the process.
Wike said that Alexander County currently operates on the Election Systems and Software (ES&S) Unity 3.4.1.1 voting system. This voting system hardware consists of DS200 precinct tabulators and AutoMark ballot marking devices. Voters insert their marked paper ballot into the DS200 tabulator to be counted. Once the tabulator scans the ballot the votes are counted and the ballot is deposited into a secure ballot storage bin. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that government services provide reasonable modifications to accommodate people with disabilities. In order to fulfill this federal requirement, Alexander County provides each voting location with the ADA-approved AutoMark ballot marking assistance device.
Only 22 jurisdictions in the country are still operating on Unity 3.4.1.1. Fourteen of these jurisdictions are North Carolina counties. The vendor, ES&S, recently announced they will no longer be providing user support for Unity 3.4.1.1; therefore, Alexander County must adopt and acquire a voting system certified for use in North Carolina prior to the March 3, 2026 primary election.
The Alexander County Board of Elections recently reviewed three voting systems currently certified by the NC State Board of Elections. Before any election system can be used in North Carolina elections, it must be certified by the State Board of Elections. This ensures that voting systems remain reliable, accurate, user-friendly, accessible to persons with disabilities, and capable of secure operation.
Upon witnessing demonstrations of these systems, Wike said the board unanimously recommended the adoption of ES&S EVS 5.2.4.0. Adoption of this voting system will allow Alexander County to continue to use its current inventory of voting equipment. The only physical hardware change will be the replacement of an election management system computer used to configure both these machines and read election results.
After completion of the simulated election event, the county board will seek approval from the NC State Board of Elections. Wike said the local board of elections will then make a final recommendation to the Alexander County Board of Commissioners regarding the adoption of ES&S EVS 5.2.4.0 voting system.
For more information, contact the Alexander County Board of Elections at (828) 632-2990 or elections@alexandercountync.gov.