Hybrid Voting Gives Me Chest Pains
Yesterday was such a frustrating day that by evening I had to go to bed with chest pains.
It started out a good day. The day before I celebrated my 14th anniversary with my husband. The cherry blossom tree we planted in the backyard was exploding in pink taffy balls, and the smell of the lilies he got me floated through the living room as I walked to my desk.
From there it went downhill pretty quickly.
I co-founded and run an organization called SMART Elections that focuses on improving our elections, in particular we focus on election security. For the last 2 years, I have been trying to protect New York voters, and voters across the country from a particularly “bad” type of voting machine known as a “hybrid”.
What is a “hybrid” voting machine?
Welcome to my world. I am working full-time to stop something that most people do not even know exists.
There is so much wrong in the world right now, from a deadly, shifting pandemic to Black people being killed by the police daily — it is very hard to convince people that something they’ve never heard of poses “extraordinary risks” ² to them.
Let me clarify that I am not an empassioned Republican trying to overturn the 2020 election, although I admit, I understand their frustration. I am a non-partisan election advocate, and my beliefs are based on evidence and expert research. One of the country’s top election security experts, Andrew Appel, said of us, “the folks at SMART Elections are … basing their journalism and advocacy on good science.” A column by Cory Doctorow in the Washington Post goes into detail about our organization’s commitment to facts, describing us as, “a collective of committed, individual activists — who translate academic research and relay it to state regulators.”
So it’s my job right now, to persuade you to care about this. I know you are tapped out. I feel your pain. You are jaded. You’ve heard that all this huzza about voting machines is a radical disinformation campaign. You have enough stress and you already are reaching for your Netflix list. Find a way to care. It matters. It’s a little technical. But it’s not that much harder than knowing if you’re using an Android or iPhone.
A hybrid voting machine is one that combines two functions into one machine. With cars, that turned out to be useful. With voting machines, not so much.
Hybrid voting machines combine a ballot-marking device, something that was designed to help voters with disabilities vote easily, with a scanner and tabulator. A ballot-marking device must contain a printer — because it has to mark the ballot for the voter who may not be able to mark a ballot themselves. Scanners take pictures of our ballots and then count them. When you combine all of these functions into one machine, you have a voting machine that can print, scan and count. It’s like a self-driving car. If a car can fill itself up with gas, drive, brake and park, it doesn’t need you anymore. Likewise, if the voting machine can print, scan and count — it can do all that for you. If the machine is hacked, or makes mistakes, it can print votes on your ballot that you did not choose, then scan and count that ballot as it pleases. Security experts say it is almost impossible to know when this is happening. There is remarkable agreement in the election security community that this is a very dangerous design.
Andrew Appel a computer science professor from Princeton University says, “Combining the BMD+scanner is a really bad idea! Remember, the purpose of the paper ballot is to guard against cheating by hacked voting computers.” According to cybersecurity and voting system expert Kevin Skoglund, “It’s like giving a cast ballot to a person holding a pen.¹” Research indicates this type of voting machine could be programmed by malware to add, change, or omit votes on the paper ballots. This can impact, not only the tabulation of votes, but also the backup paper ballots themselves. Because of this, security experts say that elections held on these voting machines “cannot be confirmed by audits.” For reliable, verifiable elections, security experts say this design is “a disaster.”
Unfortunately, there is a complete disconnect currently between what security experts believe and what voting machine vendors do. The top 2 vendors in the U.S., ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems each have a hybrid voting system that they are selling aggressively to election officials around the country. In the last 2 years, hybrid voting in New York has exploded — from use in three counties to use in twenty-eight.
These machines are not just proliferating in New York. The hybrid voting craze is part of the equally problematic movement to use ballot-marking devices for all voters, something that at my last count is happening in at least 19 states.
Furthermore there is a clause in the “For the People Act” (H.R. 1/ S. 1) that could be interpreted as mandating that every jurisdiction in the country purchase a hybrid voting machine. We have recommended the clause be changed, as part of our overall suggestions for that bill.
Vendors like these machines because they are some of the most expensive on the market, doubling their sales income compared to other types of voting machines.
As consumers, as voters, as citizens, who is supposed to protect us from bad commercial products? Regulation agencies, our elected officials and the press.
Well, voting machines are not regulated by the U.S. government. There are no federal mandates for their security (guidelines are voluntary). The Brennan Center reports that voting machines are less regulated than colored pencils, and an article in Newsweek says, “The findings corroborate several recent reports that lawmakers, who themselves were elected using these very same vendors and machines, have little to no incentive to implement election safety standards.”
Pivoting to those elected officials: In New York, as hybrid use is rising in counties, and another even worse hybrid voting machine is in the process of being certified, lawmakers have not managed to pass legislation protecting voters. Although there is some momentum now behind a bill that our coalition helped author and champion.
The press, with the exception of the Daily News, has been relatively quiet about hybrid voting machines. The New York Times managed to do an entire expose on one of the hybrids, without mentioning that it was a hybrid, or that it was in the process of being certified in New York.
Perhaps you are starting to understand my pain. What yesterday, literally turned into chest pain.
As I said, we have been trying for two years to alert voters to this danger, and pass legislation protecting them. Yesterday, I spoke with attorneys at the New York Legislature who are reviewing the bill we are trying to pass. While I enjoy a good gaslight as much as the next gal, it was painful to listen to one of them tell me there wasn’t much buzz around our bill. They claimed to have no knowledge that we inundated the majority leader’s office with calls two weeks ago. Nor, apparently were they aware that we’ve sent more than 800 letters to every single New York legislator.
We had a victory in January, when we convinced the New York State Board of Elections not to certify one of the hybrids, but it has been a mixed blessing, as it has allowed the legislature to be complacent. I could almost hear these attorneys chewing gum as they told me to call back in two to three weeks when the legislative session will be almost over.
If the legislative session ends without protection for voters, the entire city of New York will likely be voting on hybrid voting machines within the year. The city already requested permission to use them.
Was that when the pain started? Or was it earlier when I discovered that although the New York legislature has not passed new security guidelines for voting machines in over 10 years, they have given counties twenty million dollars to buy new voting equipment. A perfect opportunity to spend millions of tax-payer dollars on those same hybrid voting machines experts are saying, “will deteriorate our security and our ability to have confidence in our elections”. The vendors were undoubtedly doing back flips in anticipation.
Next I spoke to one of the state election commissioners, who informed me that, in his opinion, even if we get this bill passed, it will not protect voters. His assessment is that the vendors will simply say that their machines are in compliance.
I implored him to speak to the legislature. Instead he asked me why I’m so worried about this, when there are so many other security issues to worry about.
I think that was when the chest pain really kicked in.
I was describing the day to my husband as I tried to wash dishes, but my chest pain was getting progressively sharper and he suggested I lie down.
Why do I care about this?
Every single aspect of our lives from the air we breathe, the taxes we pay, how the police protect us, the quality of schools our children attend, what judges sit on the bench, and whether or not the federal, state or local government controls these various choices … in this country, all of this is decided at the ballot box. Even how, when and who can vote, is decided at the ballot box. If the ballot box is lying, inaccurate, or incomplete — if votes are hacked, not counted, or missing — then the decisions made are not ours. They are the choices of hackers and whoever hired those hackers. They are decisions made by random sloppiness, or by those who deliberately put their thumb on the scale.
I care if my vote counts. Accurately. For the person or issue I voted for. Otherwise our entire system of government is meaningless.
I am having chest pains now. Your pain will come later, when you realize you are voting on a hybrid.
You can learn more. You can send a letter. You can make a phone call. You can follow me on Twitter. I hope that you will.
[1] Quote from the NY State Board of Elections 1/14/21 meeting (1:28:48)
[2] Quote from Rich DeMillo, Chair of the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy at Georgia Tech
