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Agenda Item
ASR
Control 19-000909 |
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MEETING DATE: |
09/10/19 |
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legal entity taking action: |
Board of Supervisors |
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board of supervisors
district(s): |
All Districts |
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SUBMITTING
Agency/Department: |
Registrar of Voters
(Approved) |
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Department contact
person(s): |
Neal Kelley (714) 567-5139 |
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Kim Golden (714) 567-5107 |
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Subject: Approve Hart InterCivic,
Inc. Contract for Voting Equipment
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ceo CONCUR |
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Clerk of the Board |
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Concur |
Approved Agreement to Form |
Discussion |
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3 Votes Board Majority |
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Budgeted: Yes |
Current Year Cost:
$14,748,813 |
Annual Cost:
FY 2020-21 $1,661,898 |
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Staffing Impact: |
No |
# of Positions:
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Sole Source:
No |
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Current Fiscal Year Revenue: N/A
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Prior Board Action: 02/26/2019
#44 |
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RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
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1. |
Authorize the County Procurement Officer or authorized Deputy to execute a three-year contract with Hart InterCivic, Inc. for the purchase of voting equipment, software, firmware and hardware maintenance, support and services for an amount not to exceed $15,395,592, renewable for two additional one-year periods in an amount not to exceed $355,571 per year. |
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2. |
Authorize the County Procurement Officer or authorized Deputy to make future non-material changes to the contract within the scope of work that do not increase the total contract price. |
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3. |
Pursuant to Contract Policy Manual Section 3.3-113, authorize County Procurement Officer or authorized Deputy to exercise a contingency contract cost increase, not to exceed a total of 10 percent of the contract amount, $1,539,559 for the entire term of the contract, including renewals, within the scope of work set forth in the contract. The use of this contingency contract cost increase is subject to approval requirements established by the County Procurement Officer. |
SUMMARY:
Award of contract with Hart InterCivic, Inc. to provide voting equipment and ongoing maintenance will ensure the ability of the Registrar of Voters to conduct elections in Orange County.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The County’s current voting system was initially implemented in 2003. Under federal certification a voting system must be designed to last 10 years. Through careful maintenance, the useful life of the system has been extended. Despite these efforts, the system has now reached its end of life due to several critical factors and equipment has been removed from service at an accelerated rate.
The voting system contains aging hardware components that are increasingly failing and require higher levels of maintenance between elections. In addition, the system relies on hardware, software and operating system components that are end of life, no longer supported and cannot be updated. Finally, there are limited hardware options for ballot printing and scanning; they are not optimized to support Vote Center operations, Risk Limiting Audits, recounts or manual hand counts and the ballot creation process is not scalable for the increasing language and accessibility requirements in the County. On February 27, 2019, the California Secretary of State announced the decertification of legacy voting systems, which include Orange County’s, for use after February 27, 2020.
On February 26, 2019, the Registrar of Voters (ROV) requested and received the Board of Supervisors' (Board) direction and authorization to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a comprehensive voting system specifically designed for County elections meeting the design and requirements listed in SB 450 (Vote Centers), as well as any and all applicable federal, state and local Elections Code requirements. Additionally, the direction of the Board was to implement SB 450 under the selection of Option One, which includes operating 188 Vote Center locations for the March 3, 2020 Primary Election. The desired system was identified to provide efficiencies in the processing of Orange County’s 1.6 million registered voters focusing on security, integration, customization, data conversion, training, documentation and project management.
On March 1, 2019, an RFP for Voting Equipment Solutions was released and advertised on the County's online bidding system. Four responsive proposals were received by the deadline of April 30, 2019, at 4 p.m. PST. A seven-member Evaluation Committee reviewed the proposals based on respondents' ability to provide full support and Election Code compliance for Vote Center elections; meet required deadlines and timeframes; demonstrate experience, qualifications and certifications; implement the Scope of Work; meet quality and compliance standards; and meet County Model Contract Terms, Conditions, Attachments and Exhibits as outlined in the RFP.
Category B – Vote Center Voting Solution
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Proposer Name |
Total Points (100 Point Maximum) |
Proposer Ranking |
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Hart InterCivic, Inc. (Hart) |
85.59 |
1 |
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ES&S |
68.06 |
2 |
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Dominion |
67.00 |
3 |
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Runbeck |
14.00 |
4 |
Category C – Central Count and Tabulation
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Proposer Name |
Total Points (100 Point Maximum) |
Proposer Ranking |
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Hart |
81.23 |
1 |
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ES&S |
71.29 |
2 |
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Dominion |
67.89 |
3 |
The Evaluation Committee recommends the highest scoring proposer, Hart with approval by Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley, for selection by your Board. Hart has been providing maintenance services to the County of Orange for the last 15 years and has been providing quality and timely services. Hart’s performance under the current contract has been confirmed as at least satisfactory. Department staff have conducted due diligence on the recommended proposer. Additional reference checks for Hart were satisfactory and completed with Jesse Salinas, Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar, Yolo County CA; Glen Takahashi, City Clerk, City and County of Honolulu HI; Heider Garcia, Election Administrator, Tarrant County, TX; Frank Phillips, Election Administrator, Denton County TX; Sherry Poland, Director of Elections, Hamilton County OH; Joseph Rozell, Director of Elections, Oakland County MI; Pam Slater, Deputy Secretary, Oklahoma State Election Board; and Michael Winn, Administrator of Elections, Harris County, TX, regarding similar projects. Hart has experience providing election hardware, software and maintenance reports within tight timeframes.
Solution Overview
The proposed solution, the Verity Voting system (Verity), is designed to work in a California Vote Center environment and has been configured to the specific needs of Orange County voters. The combination of hardware and peripherals will allow for multiple check-in stations, designed to address congestion during peak voting periods; multiple ballot-on-demand systems to allow for efficient and high-volume production of ballots; multiple disabled access units to ensure complete accessibility for voters with disabilities; and two ballot scan stations, which will allow voters to submit their human readable ballot once marked for acceptance into secure ballot transportation containers.
Product Information
Key components of the Verity system that support the County’s needs:
Election Management Software – the versatile and easy to use election management software for election definition, ballot management, tabulation and reporting that offers many new possibilities for data analytics and has the extensibility for future capabilities.
Vote Center Voting Solution – the Verity hardware components include a durable, precinct-count, paper ballot scanning system (Verity Scan); an accessible ballot marking system with a Help America Vote Act (HAVA) compliant Audio Tactile Interface (Verity Touch Writer); an on-demand ballot system (Verity Print); and a hand-held scanner for the integration between the electronic poll book and ballot-on-demand system.
Services - A complete package of services that includes a well-documented, professional training program for the County, onsite support for acceptance testing and installation, pre-election, Election Day and post-election support.
Certification
o The Verity system as proposed meets California Elections Code Section 19006(a), and is in compliance and fully certified pursuant to the California Secretary of State’s requirements and regulations.
Language
o Verity includes multiple languages per U.S. Department of Justice requirements.
o Verity includes a powerful ballot staging feature that was created with Orange County’s specific needs in mind. This feature allows for the English portion of the ballot to be locked down first, followed by complete proofing of language components so that so that printing can start while translation and audio content is being created for other ballot languages.
o The system includes language-specific fonts that are compliant with California Voting System Standards font requirements.
Integration
o Ongoing support of Orange County third party systems, ensuring continuity of election operations. For example, Orange County’s middleware application, BRAVO, will continue to be supported in Verity. Verity has integrated Orange County’s election management system. Additionally, Verity supports multiple Remote Absentee Vote-by-Mail (RAVBM) providers. This solution will allow voters with disabilities to privately and independently vote from home.
o California specific reports are no longer separated from the certified Election Management System. Reports and exports, such as CalVoter and Statement of Votes, are fully incorporated into the tabulation and reporting system, Verity Count.
o Verity supports Vote Center automation of ballot selection through its “support any poll book” product, AutoBallot. AutoBallot will be fully integrated with the electronic check-in system, which minimizes potential Vote Center employee errors in ballot style selection.
Security
o Verity system embodies security best practices for every component and for all data, at every step of the election workflow. Hart has invested in building an entirely new system in order to ensure that security was woven into every aspect of the system as a core design goal.
o System security provides confidentiality, integrity and availability using guidelines from industry and information security leaders such as:
§ Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (MSDL)
§ NIST Cybersecurity Framework
§ Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
§ Secure phase-gate development processes
§ Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) standards
§ California Voting System Standards (CA-VSS)
o Hart’s signature Defense-in-Depth strategy incorporates multiple layers of security controls across all system elements to maximize defenses and eliminate gaps between protections. Verity’s layered security measures fall into four main categories:
§ Software security
§ Physical security
§ Secure configuration
§ Operational security
Auditability
o Hart’s Verity system was designed and architected to support risk-limiting audits (RLA). Verity supports RLAs by enabling users to easily compare voter selections on auditable printed vote records (APVR), in the form of Verity’s hand marked or machine marked paper ballots, with machine interpretations of those same ballots, stored as Cast Vote Records (CVR). The ability to trace a one-to-one comparison between the APVR and the CVR enables auditors to assess the risk of whether the outcomes are different than those reported from the tabulation system.
o Central count scanning supports robust auditability, with highly filterable ballot image searches and access to ballot images. Users can export original and annotated images, which show how each ballot was adjudicated. Central includes multi-feed detection, instant wake-up and exceptional granularity in its report filter options.
o Verity provides an easy to use Auditing dashboard, enabling easy CVR data export.
CVRs can be exported according to a robust list of user-defined filters and exported in raw XML data format or as human-readable PDF reports. This Verity Count feature increases auditability, reduces risk and increases transparency and voter confidence.
Reporting
o Verity Count can produce a variety of standard and customized reports and includes reporting capabilities for a wide variety of system information gathered from other Verity system components. Verity Count provides the ability to tabulate 200,000 ballots in less than a second; the system was designed to meet and beat Orange County’s unique 30- minute generation and exporting requirement for Cumulative, Statement of Votes, Precinct and CalVoter Reports. The Election Night dashboard is an easy to use, single dashboard that shows progress toward completion, so elections staff do not need to sift through multiple reports to see track progress, thus improving reporting efficiency. The dashboard also provides quick links to other important screens.
o The system provides control over precinct reporting. In Verity Count, precincts can be specified as Not Reporting, Partially Reporting, or Reporting.
Adjudication
o Adjudication of write-ins can be deferred to the Verity Count tabulation and reporting software instead, if desired.
o Verity Central offers powerful onscreen adjudication, allowing Orange County to choose the level of detail required for onscreen ballot resolution.
o Contests with types of issues that the user configures as requiring attention are color-coded, enabling the team to easily determine the disposition of unresolved marks without needing to handle the original marked ballot or duplicate and rescan out-stacked ballots.
Accessibility
o Verity’s accessibility approach has been well reviewed through partnerships with various disability advocacy groups and tested through independent third-party research agencies, providing real-world validation outside of the certification process. In this testing, the average confidence level expressed by participants was 4.61 on a 5-point scale (5 being most confident).
o Transparency - All voters are enfranchised equally with a full-face voter verified paper ballot, no summary styles or non-human readable barcodes are utilized in capturing voters choices. Verity is the only system in California that provides this option for all voters including those using an accessible ballot marking device.
o Verity Touch Writer meets the California Voting System Standards requirements for accessibility including the ability for voters to change font size, screen contrast and audio volume.
o Verity Touch Writer provides multiple means of navigating the system, including the reliable and familiar wheel and button audio-tactile interface (ATI), which supports full accessibility for voters with disabilities. This is coupled by presenting the voter one contest at a time making it easier for voters to make selections.
Maintenance
o Hart’s proposed solution includes a four-year hardware warranty and one on-site preventative maintenance visit.
o Verity voting devices require little maintenance. This independence from vendor maintenance of the system results in options for efficiency and cost savings.
o Verity software version updates are easily managed through removable, sled-nested hard drives, simplifying the maintenance update process.
The Registrar of Voters (ROV) is recommending executing a contract with Hart to provide a complete voting equipment solution for the purchase of all voting equipment and continued maintenance support with a 10 percent contingency for a total aggregate amount of $16,935,151 during the initial three-year term. ROV will return to the Board for the two one-year renewals of the contract in an amount not to exceed $355,571 per year.
Nonstandard Indemnification Provision
Minor exception was taken to the insurance provisions. CEO/Risk Management and County Counsel have approved the nonstandard terms and determined the risk was acceptable Attachment C is the Risk Assessment Form as approved by CEO/Risk Management.
These contracts do not currently include subcontractors or pass through to other providers. See Attachment E for Contract Summary Form.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Appropriations for this Contract are included in Budget Control 031 FY 2019-20 Budget and will be included in the budgeting process for future years.
State funding currently provides a 3-to-1 match for election equipment replacement. Post implementation support is 100 percent General Fund.
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Fiscal Year |
State Funding |
General Fund BC 031 |
Total |
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FY 2019-20 |
$11,061,610 |
$3,687,203 |
$14,748,813 |
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FY 2020-21 |
$1,120,859 |
$541,039 |
$1,661,898 |
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FY 2021-22 |
N/A |
$345,930 |
$345,930 |
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FY 2022-23 |
N/A |
$178,510 |
$178,510 |
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TOTAL |
$12,182,469 |
$4,752,682 |
$16,935,151 |
The contracts contain language allowing the Registrar of Voters to terminate the contracts without penalty with cause or after 30 days of written notice without cause in the event that funding is reduced and/or not available to continue funding the contract.
STAFFING IMPACT:
N/A
ATTACHMENT(S):
Attachment A – Contract MA-031-20010105 with Hart
InterCivic, Inc.
Attachment B – Risk Assessment Form
Attachment C – Final Scoring Sheets
Attachment D – Contract Summary Form