Questions grow around Dallas County’s claims that electronic pollbooks were hackable

The president of company that Dallas County claims created hackable election components says the county has never notified him of problems with the equipment.

DALLAS - The president of company that Dallas County claims created hackable election components says the county has never notified him of problems with the equipment.

The president of Tenex says he learned Dallas County was no longer using its electronic poll books from a FOX4 story and the county has yet to notify his company of any request to terminate the contract.

Tenex pollbooks are basically an iPad that checks in voters at the polls. The tablet device replaces the big paper voter rollbooks used for many years. The county said it spent $6 million on devices it can no longer use, but Tenex’s president said that’s news to him.

“We are not aware of any professional or qualified organization that would say this is a hackable poll book,” said Ravi Kallem, President, Tenex Software Solutions.

But on FOX4’s GoodDay on January 10, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins claimed the Tenex pollbooks could be hacked.

“I place most the blame, frankly, on Tenex,” Jenkins said on GoodDay. “It's their responsibility to give us an unhackable product and they failed to do so.”

The Tenex electronic poll books are also being used in Tarrant County and Travis County and in 250 other counties around the country, according to Kallem.

“We have been vetted so many times, we have more than 30,000 of these units, not aware of a single issue where our poll book has been compromised,” Kallem said.

According to the Texas Secretary Of State's office, there are no security issues with the Tenex pollbooks and the company just met the state's new certification process. A letter shows the company's equipment passed tests by both an outside lab and state examiners.

For weeks, FOX4 has been asking Dallas County to say why it believes the pollbooks are hackable.

Among the questions: did the county gave the devices a vulnerability test? Was it the elections department or the county's it department that determined the county needed to purchase new e-pollbooks for another $6 million?

On Wednesday, the county administrator said they can't answer, due to the potential for litigation.

Cal Jillson, a political science professor at SMU, said if the county did determine that the pollbooks aren't secure it owes it to citizens to explain that.

“If they are hackable people need to know that so they can make adaptations and make them secure,” Jillson said.

Susan Greenhalgh is part of the National Election Defense Coalition, a non-partisan non-profit which is working to improve the security and accessibility of elections systems.

“Taxpayers deserve answers and to get to the bottom of what is going on,” she said.

Greenhalgh said the county's statements about compatibility problems between ES&S and Tenex don't add up. ES&S itself has told other jurisdictions the devices are compatible.

“I think it is time for county officials to launch a robust investigation to find out what is going on,” Greenhalgh. “The evidence suggests that there really is no reason for this $6 million purchase, which could just be a waste of taxpayer money.”

Dallas County Commissioners are set to discuss the contract with Tenex next week in a closed session.

Questions grow around Dallas County’s claims that electronic pollbooks were hackable

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