electronic pollbook

{{Short description|Digital register of voters}}

{{More citations needed|date=December 2009}}

{{Electiontech}}

An electronic pollbook, also known as an e-pollbook, is typically either hardware, software or a combination of the two that allows election officials to review and/or maintain voter register information for an election, but does not actually count votes. Electronic Poll Books https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/electronic-pollbooks.aspx This software or hardware is used in place of paper-based pollbooks, which are typically three-ring binders. Often, the functions of an e-pollbook include voter lookup, verification, identification, precinct assignment, ballot assignment, voter history update and other functions such as name change, address change and/or redirecting voters to correct voting location.

When voters have a choice of multiple vote centers where they may vote, e-pollbooks communicating over the internet can prevent a voter from voting more than once.{{Cite web |last=Orange County Registrar of Voters |date=2017-04-02 |title=Voter's Choice Act Versus Traditional Election Models |url=https://www.caceo58.org/assets/documents/votecenterbriefingdocumentfinal.pdf |website= California Association of Clerks and Elections Officials}}

Where e-pollbooks are deployed, they have consolidated broad data (from entire city, county and/or federated state) into usable information at a polling place and have replaced a paper-based system or complemented the paper processes. This consolidation has replaced or supplemented a manual process, usually a telephone call, from a precinct back to the local or regional board of elections. Normally, the information handled by an e-pollbook is public information that can be found in public or online.

More jurisdictions are adopting electronic pollbooks in place of paper-based pollbooks. For example, in January 2014, the City of Chicago reached an agreement with Election Systems & Software Election Systems & Software [http://www.essvote.com We Support Elections] to provide more than 2,100 ExpressPoll voter check-in and verification devices to support the city's 1.6 million registered voters.{{Cite web|url=https://article.wn.com/view/2014/04/16/After_Primary_Election_Success_with_Electronic_Poll_Books_Ch/|title=After Primary Election Success with Electronic Poll Books_ Chicago and ES&S Look Ahead to November|website=article.wn.com}} The e-pollbook system was first used in Chicago's 2014 primary elections.