Apple Magazine - USA - Issue 435 (2020-02-28)

(Antfer) #1

Election administrators who reject hand-marked
paper ballots as antiquated, inconvenient or
unwieldy have few options beyond ballot-
marking devices. That’s because the $300 million
voting equipment and services industry is so
insular and entrenched.


The industry faces virtually no federal regulation
even though election technology was
designated critical infrastructure in January



  1. Federal certification guidelines for voting
    machine design are 15 years old and voluntary.
    The leading vendors have resisted publicly
    disclosing third-party penetration testing of
    their systems.


”It’s a self-reinforcing system that keeps it
frozen in a place in the past,” said Eddie Perez, a
former product development director for Hart
InterCivic, the No. 3 voting equipment company,
now with the OSET Institute, a nonprofit that
promotes reliable voting solutions. “They don’t
want to make any changes in the equipment
unless they absolutely have to.”


The Republican-controlled Senate has refused
to take up bills that would, among other things,
require a voter-verifiable paper trail and require


COUNTIES USING BALLOT-MARKING
DEVICES IN 2020
Ballot-marking devices, which voting security experts question
because a computer marks the paper ballots, are being used for all
voters in more than 400 counties in 16 states.

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