Matthews, NC -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/24/2014 -- Electronic Pollbooks from the software company Decision Support have helped to improve their home state of North Carolina’s national ranking in elections performance. The company’s innovative electronic pollbooks helped lift North Carolina from 20th place in 2008 to eighth place in 2014, according to a recent Pew Charitable Trust Election Performance Index ranking.
“Our electronic pollbook has helped modernize parts of the election process in North Carolina as well as across the nation,” said Bruce Wilkinson, CEO of Decision Support.
According to the Pew Charitable Trust, North Carolina was one of only 12 states to increase its overall elections performance by nine percentage points or more. The ranking is determined by various measures, including data completeness, ballot rejection rates, provisional ballots cast, and turnout.
Mike Sibley, the president of Decision Support’s Secured Elections Management division, said, “We have been working with various jurisdictions in North Carolina for more than seven years, and we see the improvement firsthand.”
Decision Support produces the software electronic pollbooks. According to the company’s website, the new pollbooks streamline the voter check-in process, helping voters get to the task of casting their ballot.
This technology also helps reduce the need for provisional ballots and improves voter look-up capability at the precinct, both critical areas in the Pew Charitable Trusts’ performance review.
“We started out working with a few of the largest North Carolina counties in 2007, and in the 2013 election, more than 18 counties were utilizing our electronic pollbooks” said Sibley.
Other states are working to improve their performance, and Decision Support is helping.
“We are helping counties in states across the nation implement this technology,” said Paul Schottland, CIO for Decision Support.
Schottland added that the development team at Decision Support has implemented their electronic pollbooks in other states such as Indiana and Virginia.
“Decision Support is just a tiny part of the elections process,” said Wilkinson. “The great strides made in North Carolina have been the result of the elections professionals at the state and county level.”
Wilkinson added that the Pew Charitable Trust’s rankings are an independent verification that the people are getting great value for their tax dollars.
About Decision Support
Decision Support is a North Carolina software firm that provides data management, process management and reporting software products. For more information, please visit http://www.decisionsupport.com.