NC Board of Elections chooses company for tech upgrades

The North Carolina Board of Elections on Wednesday selected a company to upgrade the state’s elections information software. 

The board voted unanimously to hire ReFrame Solutions, based in Connecticut. ReFrame bid $4.66 million for the job, according to a news release. 

Six companies bid on the work, and their proposals were vetted by an internal procurement team, state Elections Director Sam Hayes said. 

The company is to make improvements to the current system, built in 1998, that will hold until the state can replace it. A replacement would cost tens of millions of dollars. 

The upgrades will make the system easier for state board staff and local boards of election to use, according to the news release. 

The improvements will also tighten security, provide greater transparency and public access to election data, and make election administration more efficient. 

So far, the legislature has appropriated $15 million for election system upgrades. 

A portion of that is expected to help pay for an improved campaign finance reporting system. 

State Auditor Dave Boliek on Tuesday told a committee on election systems modernization he recently created that the current campaign finance system is “at least 20 years behind the times.”

It’s difficult to file reports, difficult to search, and doesn’t allow easy tracking of campaign spending, he said.