Secure Elections Act Aims to Eliminate Paperless Voting Machines
Six senators have introduced legislation that aims to eliminate insecure elections in America. The Secure Elections Act is a bill that is working towards getting rid of insecure paperless voting machines in order to reduce the danger of interference from foreign governments.
While there wasn’t any actual evidence that foreign governments altered any votes in the 2016 election, there remain concerns of a future attack on American democracy through the voting process. And with 95% of corporate information existing on paper, some people believe going back to paper voting is the most secure option.
Led by James Lankford, the group of senators wants to change the voting systems before the 2018 and 2020 elections.
The first goal of the bill is to get rid of electronic voting machines. Even though, according to the Gartner Group, 15% of all paper documents are misplaced, computer scientists continuously warn that paperless machines are too vulnerable to hacking.
“Computer scientists were worried about them from the start,” explained Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer scientist, “In every single case, when a machine was brought into the lab and studied by qualified researchers, the result was the discovery of significant vulnerabilities that could allow the machines to be compromised with malicious software that could potentially steal votes.”
Some states have already started to move away from electronic systems, but some are unable to make the transition due to budget limitations. With the Secure Elections Act, these states would be given grants for replacing the systems deemed insecure with voter-verified paper ballots.
Additionally, the bill would encourage states to partake in post-election audits based on modern statistical techniques. Due to the fact that many states only conduct recounts of a fixed percentage of ballots if there are very close election outcomes, they often lead to either counting too many or too few ballots.
Lawrence Norden, a New York University elections expert, claimed that the national security ties of Senators Lankford and Harris, who both serve on the Homeland Security Committee and the Intelligence Committee, are crucial to a successful outcome of the bill.
Though America’s approach to voting in elections has changed dramatically, much of the budget was allocated to buy and integrate paperless touchscreen voting machines. While electronic machines seemed like the best option, there continue to be security concerns.
The new bill includes a plan to integrate a nationwide process to identify paperless machines and phase them out. The grants given to the states could only be used for paperless machines unless the system includes an optical scanner to read paper ballots.
The bill also creates an advisory committee to be staffed with election security experts. These experts would be in charge of setting standards for robust election auditing.
“It is imperative that we strengthen our election systems and give the states the tools they need to protect themselves and the integrity of voters against the possibility of foreign interference,” Lankford said when unveiling the bill.
In the House of Representatives alone, the constitution calls for 435 congressmen and women, with elections being held every two years. There are also 100 senators, with one-third of senators up for election every two years. That’s hundreds of critical elections taking place across the country on a regular basis, so the stakes are high if electoral integrity is questioned.