Voting Rights And Voter Suppression - Indivisible

• DRE machines allow voters to directly record their vote on the machine, usually by touchscreen or pushbutton, and usually have a more flexible interface for voters with disabilities or language concerns. The voting data is stored in the computer’s memory. Some DRE machines also include a Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), which is a paper record of each vote that is stored in the machine.
• Optical scan machines scan paper ballots that the voter fills in by hand.
• Hybrid machines allow voters to record their votes on the machine, like DREs. But the machine then prints a paper ballot that is scanned by an optical scanner.

You can learn more about the types of equipment in use in polling places in your state from this resource made available by Verified Voting.

The bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration’s 2014 report cautions of an impending crisis in voting technology. The Commission notes that many of the voting machines in use today were purchased with federal funds in the early 2000s and are past their prime. In fact, according to research by the Brennan Center, some 43 states are using machines that are more than a decade old. Additionally, according to research by the Center for American Progress, 13 states are using machines that do not use paper ballots or produce a VVPAT. The lack of a paper record makes it impossible to conduct a post-election audit to ensure that voting systems are accurately recording and counting votes.

Electronic Poll Books

When a voter arrives at the polling place, the first thing he does is go to the check-in table where a poll worker looks for his name in the poll book. Traditionally, these books were printed lists of all of the voters registered in the particular precinct. Now, more jurisdictions are switching to electronic lists on a tablet or laptop computer. Electronic poll books can enable poll workers to look up voters in the entire county or state, and direct them to the right polling place if they have come to the wrong one. Some even automatically update records on who has voted during an early vote period or at a different voting location. The bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration’s 2014 report recommended using electronic poll books.

There are some downsides, however. Electronic poll books can malfunction and are more susceptible to hacking and cyber threats. For these reasons, many jurisdictions that use electronic poll books still keep printed paper copies of the poll book at polling locations or nearby.

Resource Management: Polling Place Hours, Locations & Staffing

Some of the most important decisions elections officials make are about resource management. These decisions range from how many polling locations to open during early vote, to how many voting machines and poll workers to deploy, to whether there are staff members available to assist voters facing language barriers.

One of the most significant consequences of resource management decisions is their effect on wait times to vote. A review by the Brennan Center of three states with some of the longest lines to vote in 2012 revealed that “precincts with the longest lines had fewer machines, poll workers, or both.” Furthermore, the study showed that “[a]reas with higher percentages of minority voters tended to have fewer machines… and voters in precincts with more minorities experienced longer waits” to vote. Also, “those who waited the longest tended to live in urban areas and were disproportionately African American and Latino.” Long wait times to vote can depress voter turnout. In 2012, long lines at the polls caused more than 200,000 Floridians to leave without casting a ballot.

Where polling locations are placed also has an important impact on who is able to cast a ballot on Election Day and can disproportionately hurt communities of color. A panel convened by the Carter Center revealed that some Native American voters had to drive more than 100 miles to cast a ballot in the 2016 Presidential election. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to gut the Voting Rights Act, states closed 868 polling locations in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Carolinas—a decision that directly hurt the ability of those states’ African American and Latino communities to vote.

The bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration recommends that jurisdictions use models and tools to assist in resource allocation, such as the calculators developed by the CalTech-MIT Voting Technology Project. These calculators show different line lengths depending on various factors at a polling place, including ballot length and number of poll workers. The use of such calculators may help guard against allocating too few resources to communities of color and urban areas.

Cybersecurity

Nothing highlights the importance and urgency of better protecting our election infrastructure from cyber threats more than the recent revelations about the extent of Russian hacking during the 2016 election. Russian operatives targeted election systems in 39 states, as well as an election equipment vendor. Outdated voting machines must be updated and their security strengthened by requiring a paper audit trail. Election officials should have plans to protect voter registration databases and electronic poll books from cyberattacks. A poll from the summer of 2017 found that 1 out of 4 voters will consider not voting in the future because of cybersecurity concerns. As jurisdictions take steps to improve their technology, they must keep the safety and security of voter information at the forefront. Failure to do so will only further erode public confidence in our elections.