Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology

1. Hardware or software components that are widely available for purchase and can be integrated into special-purpose systems.

Source: Election Terminology Glossary - Draft, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), https://pages.nist.gov/ElectionGlossary/

2. Hardware and software components that are widely available for purchase and can be integrated into special-purpose systems. E-pollbooks are often implemented on COTS tablets such as the iPad or Android tablet. COTS systems are contrasted with proprietary systems.

Source: Information Technology Terminology, U.S. Election Assistance Commission, https://www.eac.gov/documents/2017/09/21/information-technology-terminology-security

3. Commercial, readily available hardware devices (such as card readers, printers or personal computers) or software products (such as operating systems, programming language compilers, or database management systems).

Source: Glossary of terms database, U.S. Election Assistance Commission, https://www.eac.gov/glossary/

4. COTS specifically refers to hardware that can be purchased commercially, such as an iPad or Android, and used as part of a voting system.

Source: America’s Voting Machines at Risk, Brennan Center for Justice, https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2019-08/Report_Americas_Voting_Machines_At_Risk.pdf