Voting machines should be seen as critical democracy infrastructure
Summary
Setting aside some misunderstanding about the challenges elections officials face in administering a nationwide patchwork quilt of election technology, there is a critical mass on the left and the right discussing how to protect our “critical democracy infrastructure.” Part of the problem is that by design, our nation’s voting infrastructure is a balkanized system comprised of a small number of vendors’ machinery, combined with a variety of ways of casting and counting ballots. The typical election management system (EMS) is a nearly decade old desktop computer running software no longer manufactured. Require the use of law enforcement officers for transfers of all voting related materials (i.e., ballot boxes, eVoting machines, removable storage, tabulators, poll books, poll worker activity logs and sign-off sheets, and anything that goes to the central facility) from voting places to counting facilities, with documented signed transfer, dual custody, and similar measures applied to critical physical resources in other risky environments. Longer term, we need careful consideration of what it would mean to designate America’s voting systems as “critical (democracy) infrastructure.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security cannot do this in a vacuum. They must proactively collaborate with States’ election professionals, and engage with all relevant parties to ensure a long-term sustainable and scalable approach.