Technology and Voting

Until the late 1800s, paper ballots were the only method of voting, and until as recently as 2004 one-tenth of American ballots were hand-counted on paper. Automation became a method of assisting ballot counting and today nearly all U.S. ballots are counted using computer assistance. Despite these long-standing advances, technology and voting is not entirely uncontroversial. 

A notable case of the danger of antiquated voting technologies was the massive controversy in Florida over the 2000 Presidential Election. The national five-week standstill regarding Florida’s use of punch-card ballots proved that voters have an incredibly difficult time detaching a section of perforated paper, called a “hanging chad” without removing the punch out, also called “dimpled chads.” Only when the chad was completely punched out of the ballot could machines accurately tally the votes, if it was hanging or partly attached this became harder to report accurately. When Bush was declared the winner, Democrats sued to force a recount in the counties affected by the voting challenges. Having lost in the lower court and appealed up to the Supreme Court, the justices determined that there was no way to recount the ballots in a time-sensitive manner, thus affirming Bush’s win in the 2000 Presidential Election.

Bush v. Gore has since been considered one of the most politically consequential elections in American history, and arguably the most pertinent to the issue of voting technology. It demonstrated the kind of rampant distrust that can arise through poor ballot design and machine counting malfunctions. In 2024, I am not sure our democracy could take such a challenge. 

Since then, purely electronic machines have been implemented to combat human error yet these machines sparked controversy regarding their accuracy leading to more recent attempts to audit voting machine performance with help from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) passed in 2002. The 2016 presidential election marked another critical point for America’s voting history given the potential vulnerability of these machines. Reports of Russian interference through social media campaigns as well as voter registration systems hacks meant information about American voters was leaked, however, this did not result in a compromised election. If anything, it simply proved the need to store election data more securely in the event these machines were to be jeopardized. 

Shortly preceding the 2020 election, Georgia replaced many of their paperless voting machines in favor of machines that allow voters to make selections electronically and review them on printed ballots. These scans were then tabulated by a different machine thus ensuring a paper trail for hand-counting ballots in the state amidst Donald Trump’s claims that there was electoral fraud in the state.

Currently, there are six states with countries that still use paperless voting machines including six swing congressional districts. This poses a problem in the event of a highly contested election, claims of interference, or simply aging infrastructure that may demand a recount. Without a paper trail, technologically speaking, we are without the capacity to confirm election results. This is a scary reality as we approach the next presidential election. 

According to an ABC/Ipsos poll, only 20% of Americans are confident in the election system. This is an issue of American infrastructure that demands funding and research. With such immense technological development over the past quarter century, it seems like a no-brainer to invest in secure, trustworthy elections.