RALEIGH — The North Carolina State Board of Elections’ Modernization of Election Data Systems Commission held its inaugural meeting last Tuesday in Raleigh. State Auditor Dave Boliek, who launched the commission in early February, chaired the meeting.
The Feb. 24 meeting was livestreamed on the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor’s Facebook page.
Boliek formed the bipartisan 22-member Modernization of Election Data Systems (MEDS) Commission earlier this month. The commission, which includes state election officials, political appointees and academics, was formed with a goal of having the maximum amount of input and conducting the work on modernizing state election systems transparently.
Legislation passed by the General Assembly gave Boliek oversight and certain authority over the State Board of Elections (NCSBE), a move that the governor sued over but ended with the North Carolina Supreme Court siding with the legislature in the case.
The Statewide Elections Information Management System (SEIMS), the state’s election management system, has been in place since 1998 and is a mix of 12 separate, decentralized client-based applications and two web-based applications, as well as an outdated legacy software written in unsupported programming languages.
The aging system has made routine updates increasingly difficult, with past election officials warning the system is near failure. The current NCSBE has taken the issue seriously and began asking the public for input last fall.
“It’s time for a serious effort to modernize our election system,” Boliek said at the onset of the MEDS meeting. “And when I say serious, I also mean being transparent and being realistic with costs, being open to the public, and bringing in professionals and members of the community who understand systems and can offer real feedback.”
Boliek added that the need for input was why he and NCSBE Executive Director Sam Hayes decided to form the bipartisan MEDS Commission. He also said the campaign finance system is “at least 20 years behind the times” and wanted to see an overhaul completed by July 2027.
Boliek outlined the issues with the SIEMS system, saying the system has no modern capabilities.
“Let’s remind ourselves that that predates social media, predates digital ads, predates online small donor fundraising, all social media platforms,” Boliek said, adding that it existed before “AI-assisted analytics, public portals, cloud services and several other technologies that have since been adopted into everyday use, including the iPhone, so things have certainly changed.”
Hayes said the meeting marked the start of work on the overhaul, which he called “well overdue,” and underscored the system operates on a “dead language” and will “cease to function in the next two years.”
“I see it as a bridge to an entirely new system, which will be the standard for the nation,” Hayes said.
NCSBE Director of Campaign Finance Lindsey Wakely gave a presentation outlining deeper issues with the current campaign finance process, including being time consuming and requiring multiple steps by users like campaigns and treasurers. She highlighted the current platform includes remote software that is downloaded by users instead of using applications like web portals that entities such as the Federal Elections Commission utilize and that the system can only be used through Microsoft Windows.
Hayes said modernization is happening in three phases and that implementation would be done in increments to maintain security and continuity of operations. Phase one involved requests for proposals (RFP) from vendors and has been completed, and the second phase will involve actual system implementation and testing.
During a meeting of the NCSBE held the day after MEDS met, Hayes announced ReFrame Solutions had been chosen as the vendor. The company, based in Connecticut, was chosen through the RFP process, with ReFrame Solutions’ bid coming in at $4.66 million.
“After a rigorous and highly competitive selection process, I am proud of the work our procurement team put into identifying the best partner to help modernize our aging legacy election management system,” Hayes said in a press release. “Their diligence and technical expertise ensured a fair and comprehensive evaluation.
“ReFrame Solutions stood out for its innovative approach and commitment to security, usability, and transparency, and we are confident this modernization effort will strengthen election administration across North Carolina.”
The next MEDS meeting will take place on March 18.
