ReFrame Solutions has been chosen as the winning vendor to modernize the State Elections Information Management System (SEIMS) for the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE).
The Windsor, Connecticut-based software company’s bid totaled $4.66 million.
“Today I’m happy to announce that I’m delivering on a promise I made when I took office nine months ago,” said NCSBE executive director Sam Hayes at a board meeting on Wednesday. “With all the initiatives we’ve implemented to improve elections administration in that time, none has been a bigger priority for me than the full modernization of our aging election management system. Beginning in December of last year, we launched an open and transparent RFP process to cast the widest net possible for a partner who could meet our technical requirements and timeline. Our team conducted a rigorous and highly competitive selection process, and this is the culmination of their work.”
Six vendors submitted bids after the Request for Proposal (RFP) was made in December.
The Statewide Elections Information Management System (SEIMS) was initially developed in 1998 and is the central elections management system that coordinates statewide elections processes, voter registration, voter roll list maintenance, and reporting of election results. It is used daily by the State Board and the 100 county boards of elections.
Hayes told the Modernization of Election Data Systems (MEDS) Commission at their first meeting on Tuesday that SEIMS was cutting-edge when it was developed in 1998, but much of its underlying technology is dated and increasingly difficult to maintain, update, and secure. And the fact that the SEIMS code is written in a “dead language” and will cease to function within the next two years also prompted the need for modernization and replacement.
He stressed that it will be a two-year process to revamp the system. The SEIMS modernization effort will enhance the current system’s functionality and security while bridging the gap until a full system replacement can begin within 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 Tuesday. “I appreciate the partnership with the office of the State Auditor and the guidance of this commission. I’m confident that our efforts together will strengthen election administration, improve security, and reinforce public confidence in the electoral process.”
He said the $15 million appropriation that he requested from the General Assembly should cover Phases 1 and 2 of the modernization plan,
Among the goals that Hayes noted include: following transitioning legacy client based components to secure web-based modules, improving accessibility for counties, reducing infrastructure demands, allowing for faster deployment of updates when laws or procedures change, strengthening security and systems availability with updated architecture and modern code to protect sensitive voter data, reducing vulnerabilities and improving performance, enhancing data management and reporting tools to enable counties to generate reports more efficiently, responding more quickly to public records requests, managing election data with greater consistency, improving data integration and validation processes (particularly geographic and address validation to ensure accurate precinct and district assignment), more streamlined election setup, and conducting extensive testing training and user feedback with county elections officials in order to ensure the system supports their operational needs.
“ReFrame Solutions is a national firm with a successful track record working with other states in this space,” Hayes said on Wednesday. “It brings significant resources to bear and they have been thoroughly vetted by our internal procurement team.
The State Board voted unanimously in favor of the company.
It was noted, however, in a press release, that the large-scale replacement of the system, the biggest overhaul of election data management in North Carolina history, will be handled by a separate bidding and proposal process. The vendor selection and project scope for that phase are expected to be completed later this year.
At the MEDS meeting on Tuesday, the replacement of the campaign finance reporting software developed by NCSBE in the early 2000s was also discussed.
State Auditor Dave Boliek, who chairs MEDS, stressed that the full upgrade will take some time and that he expects to see the Campaign Finance Reporting software overhauled by the summer of 2027.
