Voting and Elections

Part of "Electronic Voting Machines Project"

The security of elections and the ability of citizens to participate in the political process by voting are fundamental to our democracy. However, the history of elections has shown that when there are opportunities for fraud and deception, there will almost certainly be individual and organized efforts to exploit them. Various forms of disenfranchisement and voter intimidation have also long been a feature of elections.

Americans are increasingly putting our election process in the hands of private companies without adequate oversight. As a result, a major basis of our democracy, open and honest elections, is being compromised. Electronic touch-screen voting machines now account for approximately 30 percent of the vote count nationwide and, thanks to Federal funding, many more direct-recording electronic (DRE, mostly touch-screen) voting machines are being installed. Electronic equipment is also used to read optical scan ballots and approximately 80 percent of voting districts use electronic equipment that tallies votes from multiple precincts to produce overall election results for the district.

Although there are desirable aspects of this new technology, most manufacturers have not adequately addressed important security features. According to computer professionals and security experts, central tallying equipment, DRE voting machines, optical scan readers, and other mechanical and electronic vote recording equipment are all susceptible to manipulation and error. Experience to date has indicated that reliability is also an issue with voting equipment; many voters have been disenfranchised by machine failures and problems getting the machines to function properly.

The result is that widespread adoption of electronic voting equipment, of the types most commonly used and with our present election processes, represents a serious threat to election integrity and voter access, and therefore to our democracy as well.

Commonweal Institute is working to raise awareness of the public and our political representatives of the problems posed by electronic touch-screen voting systems and how these might be corrected. There are two steps to address: (1) understanding the issues and (2) taking effective action to bring about change. Here are links for education and action:

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