Category Archives: voting technology

Local election officials warily eyeing the EAC’s action on voting systems guidelines

Election Assistance Commission, voting technology

Votebeat’s weekly newsletter reports on the upcoming meeting of the EAC’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee, and some local anxiety about whether plans are in the works to change direction on voluntary voting systems guidelines, in line with the President’s (unlawful) direction in Executive Order 14248.

FWIW, it looks to me like the EAC is at least thus far dotting “i”s and crossing “t”s through a careful, deliberate, process — relying on the expertise of its technical advisory boards, as required by statute — as it tries to navigate some fraught political waters.

Share this:

“Cyberattacks shake voters’ trust in elections, regardless of party”

voting technology

Ryan Shandler, Anthony DeMattee, and Bruce Schneier in The Conversation, report results of a recent study showing the impact of information about cyberattacks — even cyberattacks unrelated to the election process — on trust in elections.  And they’re clear-eyed about the benefits of technology (“No one misses the hanging chads of 2000”), so the remedy isn’t “less tech” but “more public education.”

Share this:

Alabama touts first-in-the-nation security emblem on ballots

election administration, voting technology,

Plenty of states use features like watermarks on most official ballot papers (sometimes with express exceptions for ballots submitted by overseas citizens and voters with disabilities), but Alabama says it’s the first with security emblems invisible to the human eye and detectable only with specialized equipment.  (I guess we’re not counting Cochise’s lapsed pilot program…)

I’m not aware of a known problem with counterfeit paper ballots, though the notion has certainly featured in some past conspiracy theories.  I’m all for advances in ballot design that don’t limit access.  But I do wonder whether a program with security features that are specifically designed not to be visible to anyone but the government will be received by the more conspiracy-minded.

Share this:

Defamation Verdict Against Mike Lindell

election subversion risk, voting technology,

AP News: Federal jury in Colorado finds MyPillow founder, Mike Lindell, liable for “statements made about Eric Coomer, the former security and product strategy director at Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, including calling him a traitor.” Jury awards Commer “$2.3 million in damages, far less than the $62.7 million Coomer had asked for to help send a message to discourage attacks on election workers.”

“He [Lindell] said he used to be worth about $60 million before he started speaking out about the 2020 election and is now $10 million in debt.”

Share this:

ES&S Responds to NYDN Editorial Against Its Voting Machine

voting technology

In response to the New York Daily News editorial that I linked to, ES&S sends along this reply:

Paper ballots? Yes!

By Tierra Williams, ES&S Regional Manager, New York

It’s true: good old paper remains the best way to run secure, foolproof elections. That’s why every single voting system ES&S makes, including the ExpressVote XL, produces a paper record that can be audited and verified.

For years, a small but vocal group of skeptics have repeated the same tired refrain about the ExpressVote XL, a voting machine made by my company, claiming it’s hackable, insecure, and unverifiable. Those claims are simply not true, and we believe New Yorkers deserve a full and accurate picture.

The ExpressVote XL relies on paper. Voters make their selections on a 32-inch touchscreen, then those selections are printed on a paper ballot for tabulation. That same paper record is used for auditing, as well. Post-election audits consistently demonstrate the paper records match what the XL reports.

Baseless and inaccurate claims about the XL are nothing new. They have been debunked time and again, including in courts of law. New York and Pennsylvania courts have dismissed or ruled against “baseless and irrational” attacks on this proven technology. The XL is backed by independent research, and hundreds of real elections with millions of ballots cast accurately and securely have consistently shown these speculations to be false.

The XL is tried and tested. Proven and trusted. Voters in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Delaware have relied on it since 2019. In New York, voters in Monroe County led the way in adopting it, and county commissioners say the XLs are getting rave reviews. Poll workers report that the system is easy to set up and manage. Voters say they love how easy it is to use and that it’s easy to check their selections on the paper ballot.

Critics often claim the system is “unverifiable” by voters, but the facts say otherwise. Every single voter can review their selections before casting the paper record. Voters control their selections with the XL. As mandated by New York law, the ExpressVote XL provides the voter “an opportunity to privately and independently verify votes selected and the ability to privately and independently change such votes or correct any error before the ballot is cast and counted.”

The XL combines the best of both worlds: the security of paper and the accessibility of a touchscreen interface. ALL voters—including those with sight, reading, or other physical impairments—can vote independently and confidently. Everybody votes on the same device. This voting experience also eliminates voter mistakes like stray marks or indecipherable selections—which can result in a contest or an entire ballot to not be counted—ensuring ballots are counted as the voter intended.

Long lines? To the contrary. The XL has been praised for its speed and ease of use. Voters enjoy a fast, private voting experience—around 80 seconds on average, and sometimes as quick as 20 seconds.

And what about hacking? Nope. Researchers at New York’s Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) conducted a 10-day penetration test and couldn’t find a single way to hack the results of a real-world election. Not one. In fact, the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) had two technology companies independently validate the quality, accuracy and security of the system.

So why do false claims continue to surface? We honestly don’t know. Perhaps because change is hard or it’s easy to distrust something unfamiliar. The good news is there are thousands of voters to listen to about the XL—voters who have tried it, tested it, and trusted it. We think more New Yorkers should be able to experience that feeling as well. And we think naysayers attacking a voting system that has consistently performed well and passed every test of security and accessibility are doing a disservice to every voter in New York.

NYSBOE made the right call certifying the ExpressVote XL. The system meets and exceeds the rigorous federal testing standards established by the EAC—the same standards required by New York for certification.

We love paper. We also love saving jurisdictions millions of dollars they would otherwise spend on preprinted ballots that never get voted on and have to be thrown away every single election. In Monroe County alone, the Board of Elections said the new machines will save about a quarter of a million dollars each election year.

It’s time to stop the nonsense. And it’s time to trust what works. Let’s give voters the tools they need to vote securely, confidently, and independently—and move forward together in strengthening, not undermining, our democratic process.

Share this:

“Real paper ballots are a must: N.Y. needs to get rid of touchscreen voting machines”

voting technology

NYDN editorial:

This afternoon a state appellate panel in Albany is hearing a case to reinstate a good government group lawsuit against the state Board of Elections for wrongly allowing new voting machines that dispense with the indispensable needed for a secure franchise: paper ballots.

Yes, good old paper is the best and only way to have foolproof elections. It is something that Donald Trump has long insisted on and he is entirely correct. Unlike computers, paper can’t be hacked.

Following the 2000 Bush/Gore debacle in Florida, a joint MIT/Caltech review concluded that paper ballots filled out by voters and fed by voters in scanning machines was the optimal method. If there is a problem or a close contest, just open up the machines and hand count the paper. That is now the law in New York.

The new gizmo, called the ExpressVote XL, is made by the same firm that manufactures the scanning machines now used by New York City and many other counties in the state, Election Systems & Software. But while we like the ES&S scanners, we vote thumbs down on the ExpressVote XL…

Share this:

“Wisconsin Elections Commission: Small communities don’t need permission to stop using voting machines”

election administration, The Voting Wars, voting technology

From Wisconsin Public Radio:

The Wisconsin Elections Commission says small communities don’t need the state’s permission to stop using electronic voting machines, siding with a northwestern Wisconsin town that switched to hand-counted, paper ballots last year.

The WEC decision means municipalities still must make at least one electronic voting machine available at polling places for voters with disabilities.

Share this:

“Controversial voting machine gaining use in NY elections”

election administration, voting technology

Per the Times-Union, the controversy with the ES&S ExpressVote XL is the barcode used to tally results (which also drew the ire of President Trump’s executive order on elections, though the purported mandate with respect to voting machines is quite likely unlawful).

Notably, the story includes bipartisan praise for the systems from the Monroe County commissioners authorizing the purchase.

Share this:

“Trump’s order seeks to force states to buy costly new voting machines”

authoritarian threats in US, voting technology

WaPo:

President Donald Trump’s plan to overhaul elections could hurl 2026 into turmoil by forcing states to hand-count ballots or scramble to spend millions of dollars on voting systems that aren’t yet on the market, according to election officials and voting experts.

If put into effect, his recent executive order attempting to transform elections could make it impossible for some states to use voting machines, election experts said. No voting systems are commercially available that meet the standards the president put forward in his executive order. Election officials broadly oppose hand-counting ballots as an alternative because the practice is time-consuming and prone to errors.

If Trump’s plan ever comes to fruition, it could hit taxpayers hard. Outfitting every state with new machines could cost $1 billion or more.

“It will create chaos in the states, and it seems almost designed to create chaos,” said David Becker, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research.

Trump’s order, however, probably won’t be implemented anytime soon. Scholars say he has exceeded his authority by claiming powers he doesn’t have, and his order drew five lawsuits from state officials, Democrats and voting rights groups….

“There is not yet a single system out there that satisfies that standard that is commercially available,” said Lawrence Norden, vice president of elections and government at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

Share this:

“Trump Weakens U.S. Cyberdefenses at a Moment of Rising Danger”

chicanery, voting technology

NYT:

When President Trump abruptly fired the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command on Thursday, it was the latest in a series of moves that have torn away at the country’s cyberdefenses just as they are confronting the most sophisticated and sustained attacks in the nation’s history.

The commander, General Timothy D. Haugh, had sat atop the enormous infrastructure of American cyberdefenses until his removal, apparently under pressure from the far-right Trump loyalist Laura Loomer. He had been among the American officials most deeply involved in pushing back on Russia, dating to his work countering Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.

His dismissal came after weeks in which the Trump administration swept away nearly all of the government’s election-related cyberdefenses beyond the secure N.S.A. command centers at Fort Meade, Md. At the same time, the administration has shrunk much of the nation’s complex early-warning system for cyberattacks, a web through which tech firms work with the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies to protect the power grid, pipelines and telecommunications networks.

Cybersecurity experts, election officials and lawmakers — mostly Democrats but a few Republicans — have begun to raise alarms that the United States is knocking down a system that, while still full of holes, has taken a decade to build. It has pushed out some of its most experienced cyberdefenders and fired younger talent brought in to design defenses against a wave of ransomware, Chinese intrusions and vulnerabilities created by artificial intelligence….

Share this:

“Judge dismisses election security case but voices ‘concerns’ about Georgia’s voting computers”

voting technology

AJC:

A federal judge has dismissed an epic court case challenging Georgia’s touchscreen voting system, ending the seven-year lawsuit that uncovered election security vulnerabilities and a breach in Coffee County.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg closed the case Monday but cited “substantial concerns” about Georgia’s voting technology, which uses touchscreens to print paper ballots.

The case was a major legal test of Georgia’s voting technology, manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems and installed months before the 2020 election. The lawsuit alleged that the voting technology is dangerously vulnerable to tampering, hacks or programming errors that could change the outcome of an election….

“While we consider our next legal steps, one thing is clear: the Georgia Legislature must act now,” Marks said. “Georgia must move to adopt hand-marked paper ballots for the 2025 and 2026 elections to protect the integrity of our elections and restore public confidence.”

While ruling against the plaintiffs, Totenberg wrote in her decision that their advocacy “helped spark real legislative change,” such as a state law passed last year that would eliminate computer-readable QR codes from ballots by July 1, 2026. The plaintiffs included both liberal and conservative voters, as well as the Coalition for Good Governance.

Totenberg’s dismissal order arrived during the final week of this year’s legislative session, but lawmakers haven’t budgeted money to pay for the estimated $66 million cost of removing QR codes….

Totenberg, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, did not decide on the merits of the case when she ruled against the plaintiffs. Instead, she dismissed the case because they failed to show they suffered an injury that would entitle them to intervention or relief from the U.S. courts.

You can find the opinion at this link.

Share this:

“The Trump admin cut election security funds. Now officials fear future elections may be ‘less secure.’”

chicanery, voting technology

Politico:

The Trump administration’s recent efforts to gut funding and personnel that support state and local election security efforts have left officials deeply concerned about their ability to guarantee physical and cyber security during the voting process.

This swift overhauling of funds means that states could lose access to information on emerging threats and election officials may be left without funding for key security services, which could leave certain states and localities more vulnerable to interference efforts than others.

“There is no difference between red states and blue states when it comes to concerns about election security, and no state can do this on their own,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s programs for securing elections — everything from scanning election system networks for safety to sharing data with the public on potential threats — have been put on hold pending a review by the Department of Homeland Security, with no guarantee they will start up again.

Should support from CISA permanently lapse, states will be forced to come up with funding, and there’s no clear plan for how to do this nationwide, as election administration and processes vary from state to state.

“Withdrawing CISA’s support for local election officials will make elections less secure,” Schmidt warned in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this month.

The lack of support from the cyber agency was further complicated this week when President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would completely overhaul the election process across the country and require DHS and the Election Assistance Commission — a federal organization that helps with election administration — to review the security of voting machines across the nation. It’s unclear how the agencies will carry this out, particularly with CISA support on hold.

The pullback in support — which includes personnel at CISA tasked with helping state officials secure voting systems and some funding for these efforts — stems in part from an assessment CISA conducted and recently sent to officials at DHS on the future of its election security programs. According to DHS officials, the review was finished in early March, but it won’t be made public….

Share this:

“U.S. agency has stopped supporting states on election security, official confirms”

election subversion risk, voting technology

Votebeat:

The federal government has halted election security activities and ended funding for the system that alerts state officials of election security threats across state lines, a representative of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told state election officials last week.

The March 3 email, obtained exclusively by Votebeat, confirmed for secretaries of state and state election directors what they had read in news reports and noticed happening in practice: that President Donald Trump’s administration has suspended or dismantled federal support for election security, at least for now.

The administration stopped funding the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or EI-ISAC, which alerts state officials of active election threats in other states, because it “no longer supports Department priorities,” CISA’s acting chief external affairs officer, Erin Buechel Wieczorek, wrote in the email. CISA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

CISA has also taken “appropriate actions” against employees who under the Biden administration had helped states monitor false information about elections posted on social media, Wieczorek wrote, adding that those actions were “ongoing.”

The message went to leaders at the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State.

A spokesperson for CISA declined to comment further, or to confirm the number of employees fired. In initial cuts, in line with the administration’s goal of reducing the size of the federal government, about 130 CISA employees were terminated, according to press reports.

Share this:

“Election security aid is on the chopping block, rattling local officials”

chicanery, election administration, voting technology

NBC News:

State and local election officials who have grown to rely on the federal government’s cybersecurity assistance fear that the Trump administration may permanently block that aid by Thursday.

Such funding, which began in President Donald Trump’s first term and is funnelled through the country’s top domestic security body, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), stopped in February. Those programs include free on-site and remote security testing of election machines and the websites that report election results, and ad hoc “situation rooms” where election officials can virtually gather and discuss security tactics in real time.

“Taking away that funding would be a very, very bad idea,” said Howie Knapp, the executive director of South Carolina’s State Election Commission,” told NBC News.

“We all know as taxpayers there is government bloat enough, but this is protecting the core function of democracy,” Knapp said. “If there’s government cuts to be made, I would recommend they don’t start with securing our nation’s elections.”

CISA, which is under the Department of Homeland Security, plans to make a decision on the future of federal election security assistance by Thursday, according to a Feb. 14 agency memo obtained by NBC News. The memo was first reported by Wired.

In an emailed statement, a DHS spokesperson confirmed CISA has “strategically paused all elections security activities.”

The potential cuts come amid a government-wide reduction in federal staffing and programming in Trump’s first weeks back in office. At CISA alone, more than 140 employees have been laid off since Trump took office, a DHS spokesperson told NBC News.

Most of the free election cybersecurity services that the federal government provides to states are funded by CISA but conducted through an organization called the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), which is run by the nonprofit Center for Internet Security. In a separate Feb. 14 letter to CISA obtained by NBC News (separate from the agency memo of the same day), the Department of Homeland Security ordered the Center for Internet Security  to “terminate” those election services….

Share this: