Voting TECHNOLOGY

• SUMMARY:
• US voting systems are insecure, outdated and overpriced due to a lack of oversight and regulation.
• Many voting systems currently in use have been demonstrated to be easily hackable at DEF CON, an international hackers conference. 
• Most jurisdictions are not doing regular audits, and what audits are being done are not being done by neutral professional auditors.
• While we want to have confidence in our election results, it is hard to have complete confidence because of these facts.

Security experts say touch screen voting machines are vulnerable to errors and hacking. Experts recommend a hand-marked paper ballot system, except for voters who are unable to mark by hand. 

• Below are suggested messaging on these issues, ways to improve our elections, and trusted groups to look to and collaborate with. 

TAKING ACTION

• Support the #CountTheVote project and other efforts  that are gathering evidence to demonstrate that election results are correct - or locating problems if they exist. 

WHO TO LOOK TO FOR GUIDANCE?

• Follow the Lead of Knowledgeable Local Election Protection Groups on Election Security & Technology

• Problems with equipment and  security vary tremendously by state, and even by county. Local election protection groups around the country have become deeply involved in making sure that voting equipment in their state provides a secure, accessible and verifiable process for voters. It's best to follow their lead. These well-informed groups include:

FLORIDA

Florida Fair Elections Coalition,

GEORGIA

Coalition for Good Governance 

VoterGA 

MICHIGAN

Michigan Election Reform Alliance

NORTH CAROLINA

Transparent Election North Carolina

PENNSYLVANIA

Citizens for Better Elections 

Protect Our Vote Philly

WISCONSIN

Wisconsin Election Integrity

YOUR ACTIONS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

We can all improve elections by supporting these local groups who are usually the most knowledgeable about best election practices for their community.

• Nationally, here are a few reliable groups to look to on these often deeply technical  issues. They have strong election technology advisory committees and experience sorting out the complex variables. 

Free Speech for People

The National Election Defense Coalition

The National Voting Rights Task Force 

and

SMART Elections 

EVALUATING & MESSAGING

• It is hard to predict how any election will turn out. Remember that pre-election polls in 2016 did not accurately forecast the official winner of the election.
• Don't box yourself into messaging that prevents raising concerns if there are legitimate concerns about election results. 
• Be wary of vote totals produced by electronic voting equipment that have not been (or cannot be) verified with paper documentation. This includes touch screen voting machines and some ballot-marking devices.
• Realize that even scanners of paper ballots can be hacked, and can make errors. In 2016 some scanners in Wisconsin were off by 2.5%. That was larger than Trump's margin of victory.
• In the 2020 Georgia primary thousands of legitimate ballots were not counted by the scanners. 
• If there are questions about results, the ballots will need to be counted by hand, in public, with good chain of custody. This may take time, but there are methods to hand-count ballots quickly and efficiently displaying a ballot online, or on a wall for all to see. 
• Do not blindly take the word of election officials. Most election officials are hard-working and honest, however U.S. elections are designed to be partisan and many election officials have a stake in the results. For guidance, look to election reform groups who are familiar with local security culture. See our list above.

LOOK FOR EVIDENCE

Look for original evidence of how voters intended to vote. This could include: 

1. Hand-marked paper ballots, absentee, or vote-by-mail ballots where the voter's intent is clear.
2. Digital ballot images of those ballots (if they can be confirmed with paper ballot originals).
3. Polltapes from election night that can confirm the totals from each voting machine.
4. Data that compares the number of voters who voted with the number of ballots cast - these 2 numbers are always supposed to match. If they do not it can indicate a problem with the results. In the 2016 Broward County FL Congressional race, only 19 precincts out of 211 had the same number of voters and votes. The count was off by over 1000 ballots. 

SUPPORT FEDERAL LEGISLATION

The SAFE Act would: 

• Establish cyber security guidelines for voting machine vendors.
• Require that all voters have the option to vote using a hand-marked paper ballot. 
• Establish research funding to create more secure, paper-based options for voters with disabilities. 
• Prohibit the use of barcodes to mark and count votes.
• Mandate and help pay for risk-limiting audits.
• Ban most internet connectivity in voting machines. 

H.R.1 /S,1 (For the People Act has passed the House, and is waiting on a Senate vote. It would: 

• Require states to use individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballots and that the ballots be counted by hand or with an optical character recognition device. 
• Require testing of voting systems 9 months before each election, and would direct federal funds to improving election administration.
• Address functionality, fairness, and security to multiple ngoing problems in U.S. elections

FURTHER READING:

• WE ARE OVERLY RELIANT ON POOR TECHNOLOGY

America relies on technology to a much greater extent than other democracies, many of whom count their ballots by hand, in public.
The technology that we use is often insecure, outdated and sold to jurisdictions at inflated prices. 

This is partly due to an almost complete lack of regulation of election equipment. According to the Brennan Center, "The federal government regulates colored pencils ... more stringently than it does America’s election infrastructure."

The federal agency that oversees voting technology, the Election Assistance Commission, has no regulatory power. They can only make voluntary recommendations. 

Hackers at DEF CON, an annual international hackers conference, have been able to successfully hack many of the voting machines currently in use for 3 years in a row. 

• OUR ELECTIONS ARE UNDER ATTACK

Our elections are under attack by foreign adversaries. 

• LACK OF MEANINGFUL OVERSIGHT

Election and government officials often say that although we are under attack, there is no evidence that votes have been changed. There is also not much evidence that votes have not been changed - because we don't gather much evidence about our election results. The National Election Defense Coalition estimates, "Less than a quarter of states do a post-election audit that manually examines the paper ballots which could catch an error in the election results."

Furthermore, election officials usually audit themselves. This is not considered best practices for an audit. 

Because they are subject to so little oversight and auditing, our elections are also vulnerable to insider rigging and undetected errors,  

• HOW TO MAKE PROGRESS ON ELECTION TECHNOLOGY

Voting is the foundation of our democracy, and it is imperative that we improve our infrastructure, administration and best practices for better security and accuracy. This will give us more confidence in our election results.

Here are a few steps that can be taken to improve the accuracy and security of our elections now and in the future:

• WHAT CAN BE DONE NOW?

SMART Elections has a Public Oversight Project called #CountTheVote. Local election protection groups took photos and video of polltapes on election night during the 2020 General Election, and the 2021 Special Senate Election in Georgia. We are now doing public records requests to gather more information based on discrepancies that were revealed in the data. By looking carefully at election documents we can help make sure elections are accurate and increase public confidence. Anyone can help.

We also need funding to continue our work. Please make a tax-deductible donation today. 

• LONG TERM REFORMS

We need to make many changes in order for our democracy to fulfill its promise of allowing every eligible person to vote, and for those votes to be counted in a way that is accessible, accurate, fair, inclusive, secure, transparent and publicly verifiable. Here is a list of recommended reforms that emerged from a documentary we produced about why more people don't vote and participate politically. Here are the categories that relate to technology:

WE NEED ELECTIONS THAT ARE:

• Accessible 
  • Voters with disabilities must be able to vote privately & independently
  • They must have confidence their votes are being counted correctly
• Secure
  • Use hand-marked paper ballots except for voters unable to mark by hand
  • Better, more secure designs for voting systems
  • Eliminate hybrid & “touchscreen for all” voting systems
  • Eliminate barcodes on ballots
  • Remove internet connectivity from election systems
  • Prohibit internet voting
• Transparent
  • Count votes publicly using as little technology as possible
  • Use only open source software for all election systems
  • Access to digital ballot images & election data promptly after results are tabulated
• Verifiable
  • Conduct meaningful robust full hand-count audits or
  • Risk-limiting audits with randomly drawn races & full public transparency
  • Have all official audits performed by neutral agencies