SUPPORT FEDERAL LEGISLATION

The SAFE Act has passed the House and needs to pass the Senate. 

It 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.

HR1 /S1 is a visionary, once-in-a-generation effort to improve the functionality, fairness, and security of U.S. elections. It will address multiple, systemic, ongoing problems in our elections. We fully support its passage. We have some specific concerns and comments regarding the security, accessibility, campaign finance reform, auditing, and election protocol provisions of H.R. 1 / S.1.  Our full recommendations for changes are here. 

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

WE NEED BETTER LEGISLATION

HR1 (For the People Act) and The SAFE Act have both passed the House and need to pass the Senate. Both bills would provide welcome improvements to our election infrastructure and protocols. (See middle of page.) 

HOW MUCH WOULD IT COST TO SECURE OUR ELECTIONS?

Making U.S. Elections More Secure Wouldn't Cost Much But No One Wants To Pay