# Election Systems & Software **Election Systems & Software (ES&S)** is the largest of the three private companies that make most of the equipment Americans vote on, alongside [[Dominion Voting Systems]] and [[Hart InterCivic]]. It is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and is privately held. Its main products are the **DS200** precinct scanner, the **DS850** central-count tabulator, the **ExpressVote** [[Ballot Marking Device]] and the **Electionware / EVS** [[Election Management System]] software. ## Origins and ownership ES&S began as **American Information Systems (AIS)**, founded in Omaha in 1979. In December 1997 AIS merged with the election division of Business Records Corporation and took the ES&S name. Two facts from the early history are still cited: - **The Hagel link.** Chuck Hagel was AIS's chief executive and a part-owner. He resigned in 1995 to run for the U.S. Senate from Nebraska, and AIS equipment counted the votes in his 1996 race. *The Nation* reported the connection in 2004. - **Who owns it.** In 2004 the company was about half owned by the Omaha World-Herald Company and about a quarter by the McCarthy Group, an Omaha investment firm. By 2019 NBC News reported that McCarthy held the controlling interest and that CEO Tom Burt was also an investor. McCarthy Capital renamed itself M One Capital in September 2025. That M One still controls ES&S rests on Wikipedia alone and is **not confirmed** here. Tom Burt became chief executive on January 1, 2015. ## Market position The three large vendors together hold almost the whole market. A 2017 Penn Wharton study put the big three at about 92% (using 2014 data), and Verified Voting's 2020 count put them at 88.8% of registered voters. NBC reported that nearly half of 2020 voters would use ES&S equipment. ES&S is the biggest of the three. ## Controversies on the record - **Remote-access software (2018).** In an April 2018 letter to Senator [[Ron Wyden]], ES&S admitted it had installed pcAnywhere remote-access software on election-management workstations it sold between 2000 and 2006. It had earlier denied doing so. - **Georgia ties (2019).** The AP reported that Governor [[Brian Kemp]] hired a former ES&S lobbyist as his deputy chief of staff. It also reported that ES&S paid for election officials on its advisory board to travel to Las Vegas. - **Texas pollbooks (2024).** After the November 2024 election, Texas decertified the company's ExpressPoll 7.0 electronic pollbook. Several thousand Dallas County voters had been handed the wrong ballot. ES&S, unlike Dominion, was not the main target of the 2020 conspiracy theories or the defamation suits that followed (see [[Election Conspiracy Theories]]). The second Trump administration's policies, however, reach its products directly: - **The barcode ban.** The March 2025 order [[Executive Order - Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections]] told the EAC to stop certifying systems that count votes from barcodes or QR codes. That threatens the ExpressVote model, which Votebeat counted in use in about 1,954 counties. Courts have paused parts of the order (see that page). - **The machines pledge.** On August 18, 2025, Trump promised an order ending mail ballots and voting machines. No such order was signed (see [[Risk-Limiting Audit]]). ## 2026 - **Maryland.** On July 22, 2026, Maryland's Board of Public Works voted 2–0 to approve a new statewide ES&S system for the 2028 cycle: $84.9 million base, up to $109.4 million with renewals. Free Speech For People, Common Cause and Save Our Votes objected. - **EVS 7.0.0.0.** ES&S's next system is being tested to [[Voluntary Voting System Guidelines]] 2.0 at [[Pro V&V]], with the test plan approved. As of this writing it is **not yet certified**. - **The EAC.** With the [[Election Assistance Commission]] at zero commissioners since July 2026, staff can still certify the system when testing ends, but nobody can revise the standard it is tested against (see [[How a Voting System Is Certified and Decertified]]). ## See Also - [[How a Voting System Is Certified and Decertified]] · [[How a Ballot Is Counted]] · [[How Election Results Are Transmitted and Reported]] - [[Dominion Voting Systems]] · [[Hart InterCivic]] · [[Liberty Vote]] · [[Smartmatic]] - [[Pro V&V]] · [[SLI Compliance]] · [[Election Assistance Commission]] · [[Voluntary Voting System Guidelines]] - [[Optical Scan Voting System]] · [[Ballot Marking Device]] · [[Election Management System]]