Emergency and Important Notification Texting Solution

The vendor is required to provide the solution should provide the elements critical to a successful emergency and informational texting solution for the election community and general public across all 24 local election jurisdictions in state.
- These election judges are trained to operate a polling location during early voting and on Election Day.
- Required to attend training and to review an instruction manual to familiarize themselves with equipment and procedures, they need a simple means of communication with state and local boards of elections during times of in person voting particularly in the event of an emergency, urgent or evolving situation.
- Emergency situations arise that may prevent voters from using their original plan to vote, e.g., natural disaster, threat, polling place down due to power outages, etc.
- This system will support the needs of emergency situational awareness and resource management during crisis and emergent events as well as respond to general concerns and inquiries. 
- The goal is for the general public and all election personnel to have real-time intelligence and communication between each of the state’s 24 jurisdictions, so the responsible parties can get the information to the right people efficiently and effectively. 
- A smart texting solution that uses key words would be an ideal solution.
- The ideal texting solution would have three capabilities: (1) the ability to communicate with election officials in times of emergency; (2) the ability to communicate with election judges; (3) the ability to communicate with voters.
- As part of the planning phase, we would like to learn about available or planned solutions that provide the following elements critical to a successful texting operation: 
• Two-way texting solution for emergency communications for election personnel during elections during the 2026 gubernatorial election cycle;
• Two-way solution to communicate with voters during elections during 2026 gubernatorial election. 
• Configuration of the program to suit the needs of the state and local boards; including but not limited to the ability of the local board of election to text only those judges working in a specific jurisdiction, group(s) or individual voters;
• Training for state and local officials on how to use the platform beginning within one month of receiving the award;
• Support provided to send messages and respond to them as needed for the state and local boards; especially during the hours of the election events (including set up and closing); 
• Advertising materials for the local boards, and election personnel, and the general public.
• Local phone numbers to which texts can be sent by election judges;
• Short code number for opting in to messaging; and
• Online data storage.
- Contract Period/Term: 1 year