What Unisyn Voting Solutions does

Unisyn Voting Solutions, Inc. is a privately held US election technology vendor headquartered in Vista, California, operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Lottery & Totalizator Systems, Inc. Founded in 2001 and employing between 11 and 50 people, the company designs, sells, and supports the OpenElect suite of digital optical scan voting systems for state and local government election authorities. The OpenElect platform comprises precinct-count scanners (OVO and FVS), an ADA-compliant ballot marking tablet (FVT) with battery backup (FVT-B), high-speed and compact central scanning systems (OVCS and miniOVCS), and the OpenElect Central Suite (OCS) of election management software (Ballot Layout Manager, Election Manager, Tabulator, Tabulator Client, Tabulator Reports, and Auditor). The system is the only digital scan voting platform built on a hardened Linux (CentOS, NIST SCAP-aligned) and Java architecture, was the first to achieve 2005 VVSG certification from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and was the first DHS election industry partner to undergo NCATS Product Cybersecurity Assessment testing by Idaho National Labs (completed October 2018).

Unisyn monetizes primarily through hardware sales of voting equipment, one-time software licenses for election management applications, and recurring revenue streams from maintenance, training, printing, and election supply contracts. The company pursues an enterprise field sales motion targeting Secretaries of State, county election officials, and municipal administrators, supplemented by a US distributor network (including GO ELECT and IVS) for state and regional coverage. It also markets to private entities such as membership organizations and corporate governance customers for non-governmental elections. Marketing channels include election industry conferences (NASED, NASS, Election Center), the corporate website, direct email outreach, and executive engagement in industry bodies including the Election Infrastructure Subsector Coordinating Council (EI-SCC).

The company's competitive positioning rests on federal certification (VVSG 1.0, EAC, ISO, HAVA), DHS-validated cybersecurity credentials, source-code transparency for procurement reviews, and a security architecture featuring unique per-machine asymmetric keysets, multi-layer authentication, triple media write protection, and OpenVPN-based transmission security. Recent product and ecosystem activity has centered on Ranked Choice Voting and Risk Limiting Audit functionality, the lower-cost miniOVCS scanner, a pending write-in image extraction patent, and participation in the IT-ISAC Election Security Research Forum at MITRE in September 2023.

Name

Unisyn Voting Solutions

Legal name

Unisyn Voting Solutions, Inc.

Website

https://unisynvoting.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Unisyn Voting Solutions is a private Vista, California-based vendor of the OpenElect suite of digital optical scan voting systems, serving US state and local government election authorities as a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Lottery & Totalizator Systems.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Election Voting Systems

akta.pro primary industry

Electoral Support & Election Observation (BPADAGAA)

Keywords

• Election voting systems
• Optical scan voting
• Ballot marking devices
• Election management software
• Central ballot scanning

Headquarters

HQ city

Vista

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Voting Hardware Sales: Sale of voting equipment including precinct scanners (OVO, FVS), ballot marking tablets (FVT), central scanning systems (OVCS, miniOVCS), and election management software (OCS). Hardware sales represent the primary revenue stream for election system providers.
2. Maintenance Services: Service and maintenance of all voting unit components, warehouse services including storage, setup and delivery to polls, loading of election data software. Ongoing support contracts for installed systems.
3. Printing Services: Ballot printing, poll worker manuals, precinct kits, test decks, and ballot management coordination between election staff and printers.
4. Election Supplies: Sale of election supplies including ballots, voting booths, ballot boxes, vote-here signs, sample ballots, precinct kits, security seals, and miscellaneous expendable supplies.
5. Training Services: Election staff, poll worker, and technician training programs. Train-the-trainer programs, hands-on classroom and video instruction. Technical training for hardware maintenance and warehouse operations.
6. Software Licenses: Sale and licensing of election management software applications including Ballot Layout Manager, Election Manager, Tabulator, and reporting modules. Flexible finance options available for products and services.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Unisyn Voting Solutions designs, manufactures, and supports the OpenElect suite of voting hardware and election management software sold to U.S. state and local government election authorities. The portfolio includes precinct-count digital optical scan voting devices (OVO, FVS), an ADA-compliant ballot marking tablet (FVT), high-speed central ballot scanners (OVCS, miniOVCS), and the OpenElect Central Suite (OCS) Linux/Java election management software. The company also provides professional election services including staffing, training, maintenance, ballot printing, and election supplies.

Product overview

Unisyn Voting Solutions offers the OpenElect suite of voting products—a comprehensive platform-plus-modules architecture built on a hardened Linux and Java platform. The portfolio centers on the OpenElect Central Suite (OCS) as the election management backbone, which coordinates with precinct-count devices including the Voting Optical Scan (OVO) and FreedomVote Scan (FVS), ADA-accessible FreedomVote Tablet (FVT) with FVT-B battery backup, and central tabulation systems OVCS and miniOVCS. The OVO, FVS, FVT, OVCS, and miniOVCS are hardware voting devices that scan, validate, and tabulate ballots, while OCS provides the software platform for election definition, configuration, tabulation, and reporting. All products are EAC certified to VVSG 1.0 standards. The company also provides complementary Election Services, Staff Training, and Maintenance and Supplies services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• OpenElect: The OpenElect suite of voting products including OVO (Voting Optical Scan), FVS (FreedomVote Scan), FVT (FreedomVote Tablet), OVCS (Voting Central Scan), miniOVCS, and OCS (Central Suite). OpenElect is a registered trademark of Unisyn Voting Solutions.

Products and services

• OpenElect Voting Optical Scan (OVO) Comprehensive and secure precinct-count digital scan voting device that quickly and accurately accepts, validates, and tabulates ballots for Absentee, Early Voting, or Election Day sessions. Scans full-page, multiple page, two-sided ballots and ballots produced on the FVT system; supports write-in votes, saves scanned ballot images, and deposits ballots into a locked and secure ballot box. Supports Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).
• OpenElect FreedomVote Scan (FVS) New precinct-count digital scan voting device with guided paper path and double-feed detection that quickly and accurately accepts, validates, and tabulates full-page and ADA ballots for Absentee, Early Voting, or Election Day sessions. Supports Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and produces multiple End of Election Night Reports.
• OpenElect FreedomVote Tablet (FVT) State-of-the-art HAVA-compliant voting device with touchscreen and audio presentation using a sophisticated text-to-speech engine supporting all languages provided by the jurisdiction. Enables voters to vote independently and privately, supports optional ADA-compliant components (sip and puff, zoom-in ballot, second-chance voting), and can accommodate Election Day and early voting sessions for both large jurisdictions and small precincts.
• OpenElect Central Suite (OCS) Linux and Java based suite of software applications that work together to define, configure, and manage elections, including Ballot Layout Manager (BLM), Election Manager (EM), Tabulator (TAB), Tabulator Client (TC), Tabulator Reports (TR), and Auditor. Supports Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and Risk Limiting Audit (RLA) functionality.
• OpenElect Voting Central Scan (OVCS) High-speed digital scan voting unit located at election headquarters, used to tabulate early vote, absentee, provisional, and recounted ballots. Capable of scanning 150 ballot pages per minute with a 500-ballot input tray, performs double-sided single-pass scanning, and captures clean ballot and write-in images in both color and black and white.
• OpenElect Voting Central Scan miniOVCS Compact ballot scanning system delivering the same functionality as the OVCS at a smaller footprint and lower price. Scans 50 ballots per minute, handles ballots 11-19 inches in length, and reads Absentee, Early Voting, Vote Center, and Election Day ballots.
• Election Services Professional election support services including Early Voting, Voters with Disabilities accommodations, Election Day Voting support, and Mail-in/Absentee Ballot processing. Provides staff and organization tools, resources, technical staff retention and training, tabulation system reports, and identification and resolution of potential problems or discrepancies.
• Staff Training Comprehensive training programs including Election Management training (ballot layout, design, candidate entry, tabulation), Poll Worker training with hands-on, classroom and video instruction, and Technician and Warehouse Staff training for hardware maintenance, repair, replacement, and preparation and delivery of voting units.
• Maintenance and Supplies Full-service maintenance program covering all voting unit components, warehouse services (storage, set up, delivery to polls), and loading of election data software. Includes printing services (ballots, poll worker manuals, precinct kits, test decks) and election supplies (ballots, voting booths, ballot boxes, vote-here signs, sample ballots, precinct kits, security seals, and miscellaneous expendable supplies).

Quantifiable outcome

• OVCS scanner processes 150 ballot pages per minute with 500-ballot input capacity
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and flagship.

• Information Technology - Information Sharing Analysis Center (IT-ISAC)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 September 2023IT-ISAC hosted the Election Security Research Forum pilot event on September 20, 2023, at MITRE Corporation. Unisyn participated alongside ES&S and Hart InterCivic to provide security researchers access to modern election technology under coordinated vulnerability disclosure principles.
• Elections Systems & Software (ES&S)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 September 2023Co-participant with Unisyn and Hart InterCivic in the Election Security Research Forum pilot event hosted by IT-ISAC at MITRE Corporation. All three major election technology providers provided technology to security researchers.
• Hart InterCivicminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 September 2023Co-participant with Unisyn and ES&S in the Election Security Research Forum pilot event. Provided election technology for security researcher access under CVD principles.
• Department of Homeland Security (DHS) / Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2018In July 2018, Unisyn became the first DHS election industry partner to undergo cybersecurity assessment testing. Idaho National Labs performed the National Cyber Assessments and Technical Services (NCATS) Product Cybersecurity Assessment completed October 31, 2018. Unisyn was first vendor to supply an end-to-end voting system for DHS vulnerability and penetration testing. DHS offers ongoing cyber services including vulnerability scans, risk assessments, and phishing campaign assessments.
• International Lottery & Totalizator Systems, Inc.coreOthersParent company of Unisyn Voting Solutions. A wholly-owned subsidiary of International Lottery & Totalizator Systems, Inc. Also designed the InkaVote Plus precinct ballot counter used in Los Angeles County, California.
• U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFederal agency that establishes voting system standards (VVSG). Unisyn's OpenElect system received first 2005 VVSG certification for a digital scanning system through EAC-accredited laboratory testing.
• Wyle LaboratoriescoreTechnology or IntegrationEAC-accredited laboratory used by Unisyn to test both hardware and software systems as required by the EAC for certification. Test results released publicly as part of Unisyn's transparent review process.
• Idaho National Labs (INL)coreTechnology or IntegrationCybersecurity research team that performed the DHS NCATS Product Cybersecurity Assessment of Unisyn election systems in 2018. Worked in conjunction with Unisyn and DHS to develop assessment targets.
• MITRE CorporationminorOthersHost venue for the Election Security Research Forum pilot event on September 20, 2023, organized by IT-ISAC's Elections Industry Special Interest Group.
• Distributor Network (GO ELECT, IVS, others)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNetwork of distributors extends Unisyn product reach across different states and regions. Distributor logos visible on company website with coverage areas across the United States.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Election Systems & Software (ES&S): ES&S is the largest US voting equipment manufacturer, offering competing precinct-count optical scanners, ballot marking devices, and central tabulation systems directly competing with Unisyn's OpenElect suite. Co-participant with Unisyn in the IT-ISAC Election Security Research Forum pilot at MITRE in 2023.
• Hart InterCivic: Hart is one of only three federally certified major US voting system vendors (alongside ES&S and Unisyn), providing competing optical-scan, BMD, and election management solutions. Co-participant with Unisyn in industry security bodies (EI-SCC, IT-ISAC).
• Dominion Voting Systems: Dominion is a federally certified voting equipment manufacturer (ImageCast series) directly competing with Unisyn's OpenElect products in US state and county procurements. Subject to intense political/regulatory scrutiny similar to Unisyn's category.

Emerging players

• Tenex Software Solutions: Tenex provides electronic poll book and election management software that overlaps with the back-office "OCS" portion of Unisyn's stack. Smaller scale and narrower product breadth, but competes for the same election-administration budgets.
• ClearBallot Group: ClearBallot markets the ClearCount and ClearAccess suite of optical-scan tabulators and election software, comparable to Unisyn's OVCS/miniOVCS and OCS products. A smaller, EAC-certified competitor focused on transparency/crowd-audited workflows.
• Slovak (Scytl) election technology (now part of Paragon/Pollub): Scytl historically offered secure electronic voting and election management platforms with comparable functionality (tabulation, online voting) to Unisyn's OCS. Comparable in product/market category but with international footprint rather than US state/county focus.
• Smartmatic: Smartmatic manufactures voting machines and election management systems used internationally, competing in the same vendor category as Unisyn though with limited US federal certification footprint. Comparable technology category, different geography mix.

Others

• International Lottery & Totalizator Systems (ILTS): ILTS is the parent company of Unisyn Voting Solutions and a long-standing supplier of lottery, totalizator, and secure-transaction systems. Direct parent of Unisyn; also relevant for the sister InkaVote Plus product line that ILTS designed and which is deployed in Los Angeles County.
• Microsoft ElectionGuard: Microsoft's open-source ElectionGuard SDK enables end-to-end verifiable election systems and is being explored as a verification layer over existing optical-scan and BMD systems. Adjacent technology/ecosystem participant that could augment or compete with Unisyn's OCS election management software over time.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Unisyn Voting Solutions