The latest news comes from Wired and a really interesting article by ISSIE LAPOWSKY:
A new report published by New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice finds that unless state governments and Congress come up with additional funding this year, the situation may not be much better when millions more Americans cast their vote for president in 2020.
In a survey that the center disseminated across the country this winter, 121 election officials in 31 states said they need to upgrade their voting machines before 2020—but only about a third of them have enough money to do so. That’s a considerable threat to election security given that 40 states are using machines that are at least a decade old, and 45 states are using equipment that’s not even manufactured anymore. This creates security vulnerabilities that can’t be patched and leads to machines breaking down when the pressure’s on. The faultier these machines are, the more voters are potentially disenfranchised by prohibitively long lines on election day.
It is much suggested reading, so take a look and click here for full story. Also just yesterday, there was some great new reporting on America’s vulnerable voting machines from Politico‘s Eric Geller:
The new machines, like the ones they’re replacing, allow voters to use a touchscreen to select their choices. But they also print out a slip of paper with the vote both displayed in plain text and embedded in a barcode — a hard copy that, in theory, would make it harder for hackers to silently manipulate the results.
Security experts warn, however, that hackers could still manipulate the barcodes without voters noticing. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has also warned against trusting the barcode-based devices without more research, saying they “raise security and verifiability concerns.”
Politico has that full story. As covered on Democracy Chronicles, other unexpected factors that research suggests affect US voter turnout now include boredom, delayed onset adulthood, cigarette smoking, wind speed, bad weather forecasts and rain. This type of research is highlighted in our Election Science archives as well as other important research in political science as it relates to democracy, the ultimate invention in political science. Be sure to also check out our Election Technology section and our articles on Technology Dissidents, the Internet and Voting or Voting Machines.
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