Low-Tech is Better Tech for Elections

The latest election technology, for better or worse, did not get picked to make its debut in the 2020 General Elections. The magnitude of the political moments (so, so, so many moments) leading up to Election Day 2020 caused a shift in the way local, county, and state officials would equip us as voters to cast the most important ballot in almost any adult’s lifetime. Rather than employ the latest and greatest in technology for voting, almost all voters were presented with paper ballots to be scanned into technology that has been around for the better part of the last decade. With the currently mounting pressure from one side to both stop the ballot count in one state, and keep the ballot counts going in others, this election feels like the finale of an old school season of the Twilight Zone. So why not focus on why we downgraded our election tech at the last minute.

The number one reason we downgraded is that of accountability. Paper ballots are a paper trail and if filled out properly, they are both machine readable and human readable. Sharpie markers aside, the most difficult part of this election is clearly the counting of ballots. The volume of the absentee and mail-ins seemed to frighten enough candidates that the days after -which traditionally are the days when votes are counted, canvassed and certified - are now being treated as dubious days of doom. When in years past no one cared how long it took as long as every vote was counted, now we are met with conflicting messages and doubt on an already slowed and downgraded process. I am happy to sacrifice speed for accountability, but we have sacrificed neither, yet the boy continues to cry; “WOLF!”

Another reason we downgraded is reproducibility. We can scan, and read, and scan, and read the paper ballots, and there are no hanging chads. For our younger students and readers, I would direct your laser-like-focus to the Election Cycle of the Year 2000, and the court debacle in Florida, Bush v Gore, and the infamous hanging chads. Chads are the pieces of paper left over after you punch a hole in the paper. Paper ballots in and of themselves aren’t high tech. They were even less so in that particular election, because the mechanism used to punch the holes that corresponded to a candidate, were human operated and left pieces of paper still attached to the ballot. When they found multiple chads still attached to ballots, they had to make decisions on whether to keep the ballots or toss them out. Eventually the Supreme Court had to get involved on the issue of hanging chads.

The third reason I can imagine is, the newer the technology used to count ballots, the more susceptible to hacking, breakdowns, or electronic/electrical interference the data stored on the device. Numerous studies of formerly widely used technology have shown the ability to erase or manipulate voting data both as a person is voting and after they have cast their ballot. Million-dollar contracts were lost, and million-dollar lawsuits were launched against the company Diebold by State Boards of Elections in California, Ohio, and Maryland, among others. Touch-screen voting has fallen out of favor among voters across the country after machines were shown to mark predefined candidates no matter who the voter actually chose. Luckily, this kind of grave discrepancy was found, and publicized, before the technology was used in an election.

For now, as frustrated as I am, and as I am sure many of us are, we just need to unplug for a while and wait for the democratic process to work itself out. We have already made sure we are using the best technology to count, recount, and canvass our votes. This is not any states’ first election, and regardless of the political party of the state or local government, we are all in this to elect the right person for the job. All of these results are being, or will shortly be, challenged in court. Luckily for the American People, there is less and less of a valid reason for that to happen as each hour ticks on. There have been zero credible claims of voter or election fraud as of the time of this writing. Numerous lawsuits have already been thrown out for meritless, evidence-less, and hearsay claims; and this will no doubt continue until even the courts get tired of making decisions about it. It will be over when every legally cast ballot has been counted, not one moment sooner.