In June, Georgia conducted a primary election now infamous for long lines. Across the state, there were problems with electronic pollbooks, access cards to start up touchscreen voting machines, and the touchscreen machines themselves. State officials and the vendor blamed “human error” and poor training, but machine troubles in Georgia, and elsewhere, are nothing new, as a federal judge just noted in a court order mandating effective backup for the technology problems.footnote1_fkiuId2onpxzhfRhE-a2I5cqSyZgTHJh3IvdPXG0_khAxVZa54Gip1Mark Niesse and Alan Judd, “Election Fiasco Reveals Flaws with Georgia’s New Voting System," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 14, 2020, https://www.ajc.com/news/state—regional-govt—politics/election-fiasco-reveals-flaws-with-georgia-new-voting-system/FoZjtLGPYccOrHzXHiPbDL/; Jaclyn Cosgrove, John Myers, and Matt Stiles, “L.A. County Primary Voting Was Plagued with Technology Flaws,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020–06–17/l-a-county-primary-voting-was-plagued-with-technology-flaws; Fadel Allassan, “Judge Orders Georgia to have Paper Backups of Pollbooks on Election Day,” Axios, last updated September 28, 2020, https://www.axios.com/judge-georgia-pollbooks-paper-backups-d83c46db-48e5–45d7–97ab-62f459d3b629.html. As new poll workers start across the country, difficulty learning how to troubleshoot and operate voting technology will likely persist in November.footnote2_DBDxv2moml9UkDqhKxc3kUjFUAXb94pttv4huQZD0U_e4KZdbjFV32K2Jonathan Diaz, “Why You Should Be a Pollworker this Year,” CNN, September 1, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/opinions/poll-worker-recruitment-covid-19-diaz/index.html. Moreover, the risk of a cyberattack against election infrastructure remains a concern, with local governments and election vendors having been subject to ransomware attacks over the past year.footnote3_rf7Fq7e9fydoTQiglbdKmtN7lY6fWg9cCm5WH41jDY_fs3RG8dfFGlq3 Tom Burt, “New Cyberattacks Targeting U.S. Elections,” Microsoft, September 10, 2020, https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/09/10/cyberattacks-us-elections-trump-biden/; Nicole Perlroth and David E. Sanger, “Ransomware Attacks Take on New Urgency Ahead of Ahead of Vote,” New York Times, September 27, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/27/technology/2020-election-security-threats.html.
Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to let voting continue in the face of inevitable technical difficulties: an ample supply of backup paper supplies.footnote4_-GHelAkpVa3dygV-RJ-BfTbcwSnKW45wpF-xBLu2ICg_zK5cM0jPVDfN4Edgardo Cortés, et al., “Preparing for Cyberattacks and Technical Problems During the Pandemic: A Guide for Election Officials,” Brennan Center for Justice, June 5, 2020, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/preparing-cyberattacks-and-technical-problems-during-pandemic-guide. If voting machines are malfunctioning or inoperable, poll workers can provide voters with emergency backup paper ballots to hand-mark until the machines can be fixed. Provisional balloting materials can be used when electronic pollbook issues — or a cyberattack on the registration database — prevents poll workers from knowing whether voters are eligible or whether their absentee ballots have been received and accepted for counting.footnote5_AioqU588atwu3hamRsgm8aLMIjlxwyJ1e6s9knOGE_beohaA2a3GzN5Edgardo Cortés, et al., “Preparing for Cyberattacks and Technical Problems During the Pandemic.” Unfortunately, Georgia did not have enough backup materials in the spring, and a federal judge just ordered all Georgia election officials to keep updated paper pollbooks in each polling place that can be used to check voter eligibility to cast a regular ballot, along with a “sufficient” level of emergency paper ballots to provide voters.footnote6_MLr-C2H5owz4gAwgsCX5p7ATmq3ARMSyvK39CsE5mk_xgagy7CgQSf96Kevin Morris, “Digging into the Georgia Primary,” Brennan Center for Justice, published August 24, 2020, last updated, September 10, 2020, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/digging-georgia-primary.
To be sufficient, there should be enough emergency and provisional materials to keep voter lines moving for up to three hours while any technical issues can be identified and resolved. In 2020, this will likely require precincts to have enough backup materials for 40 percent of all Election Day voters.
While unprecedented levels of early and mail voting are expected due to the pandemic, Election Day voting is still what most are familiar with. It’s unreasonable to bank on the vast majority of voters casting their ballots ahead of Election Day. Yet if they stick to current policies in purchasing their Election Day backup supplies, that’s the gamble jurisdictions will be taking. Fortunately, they can still print more supplies now.
End Notes
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footnote1_fkiuId2onpxzhfRhE-a2I5cqSyZgTHJh3IvdPXG0_khAxVZa54Gip
1
Mark Niesse and Alan Judd, “Election Fiasco Reveals Flaws with Georgia’s New Voting System," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 14, 2020, https://www.ajc.com/news/state—regional-govt—politics/election-fiasco-reveals-flaws-with-georgia-new-voting-system/FoZjtLGPYccOrHzXHiPbDL/; Jaclyn Cosgrove, John Myers, and Matt Stiles, “L.A. County Primary Voting Was Plagued with Technology Flaws,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020–06–17/l-a-county-primary-voting-was-plagued-with-technology-flaws; Fadel Allassan, “Judge Orders Georgia to have Paper Backups of Pollbooks on Election Day,” Axios, last updated September 28, 2020, https://www.axios.com/judge-georgia-pollbooks-paper-backups-d83c46db-48e5–45d7–97ab-62f459d3b629.html. -
footnote2_DBDxv2moml9UkDqhKxc3kUjFUAXb94pttv4huQZD0U_e4KZdbjFV32K
2
Jonathan Diaz, “Why You Should Be a Pollworker this Year,” CNN, September 1, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/opinions/poll-worker-recruitment-covid-19-diaz/index.html. -
footnote3_rf7Fq7e9fydoTQiglbdKmtN7lY6fWg9cCm5WH41jDY_fs3RG8dfFGlq
3
Tom Burt, “New Cyberattacks Targeting U.S. Elections,” Microsoft, September 10, 2020, https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/09/10/cyberattacks-us-elections-trump-biden/; Nicole Perlroth and David E. Sanger, “Ransomware Attacks Take on New Urgency Ahead of Ahead of Vote,” New York Times, September 27, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/27/technology/2020-election-security-threats.html. -
footnote4_-GHelAkpVa3dygV-RJ-BfTbcwSnKW45wpF-xBLu2ICg_zK5cM0jPVDfN
4
Edgardo Cortés, et al., “Preparing for Cyberattacks and Technical Problems During the Pandemic: A Guide for Election Officials,” Brennan Center for Justice, June 5, 2020, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/preparing-cyberattacks-and-technical-problems-during-pandemic-guide. -
footnote5_AioqU588atwu3hamRsgm8aLMIjlxwyJ1e6s9knOGE_beohaA2a3GzN
5
Edgardo Cortés, et al., “Preparing for Cyberattacks and Technical Problems During the Pandemic.” -
footnote6_MLr-C2H5owz4gAwgsCX5p7ATmq3ARMSyvK39CsE5mk_xgagy7CgQSf9
6
Kevin Morris, “Digging into the Georgia Primary,” Brennan Center for Justice, published August 24, 2020, last updated, September 10, 2020, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/digging-georgia-primary.