Name: Republicans Say They Care About Election Fraud. Here’s How They Could Actually Prevent It.
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Republicans Say They Care About Election Fraud. Here’s How They Could Actually Prevent It.

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Republicans about election security these days. Fueled in part by the “Big Lie,” the baseless claim that there was widespread fraud in last year’s election, Republican lawmakers around the country have to prevent what they saw as a nightmare scenario from happening again. While the motivation to improve election security is spurious, the ostensible goal isn’t — everyone would agree that a secure election is important for democracy. Experts say there’s one very effective way for state legislatures to make the voting process more secure: pass legislation to update voting machines. But instead of prioritizing this effort, many Republicans are instead focused on limiting voter access.“It would be terrific to see the focus on election security lead to more investments in better, more trustworthy systems,” said Mark Lindeman, co-director of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election security organization.&nbsp;The gold standard for voting security is hand-marked paper ballots, . That’s because a paper ballot eliminates the risk of technical difficulties or certain kinds of malicious acts (think hacking) that could change or destroy your vote, and any concerns can be addressed with a recount. Because of that, most hand-marked paper ballots or have voting machines that generate paper records for verification.&nbsp;But in six states — Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Tennessee and Texas — some or all voters still cast ballots on machines that have no paper record whatsoever, according to data from Verified Voting. While there’s no evidence that these machines have ever been hacked during an election, it’s , and they’re also prone to all kinds of undesirable malfunctions, including votes. With no paper backup to audit, these machines are the kind of election security liability that politicians say they’re invested in fixing.&nbsp;Yet according and additional calls I made for this story, in five of those six states there has been little or no effort in the past six months to prioritize updating machines with a system that includes a paper record.Other ways to shore up election security, such as requiring paper backups for electronic pollbooks, have also gone mostly ignored since 2020. Instead, state legislatures have been flooding the docket with bills relating to the length of early voting periods, the placement of ballot drop boxes and whether volunteers can give voters waiting in line . Meanwhile, just a handful of bills about upgrading equipment — often without any funding attached — have trickled in, only to lose momentum and die before reaching a committee. And that many of the bills that are gaining traction will actually harm election security by limiting opportunities to vote, which puts pressure on the existing system. If the majority of voters are forced to vote in one way, at one location and during a very limited window, then a malicious actor need only target that location to disrupt thousands of ballots.There are efforts underway outside of the state capitols to make upgrading election machines a priority. At the federal level, the expansive, would require universal use of paper ballots, while at the local level, some jurisdictions like are taking it upon themselves to update machines to include a paper trail. But amid the vocal concern for the security of U.S. elections, there’s been little political will to make some of the most impactful changes.&nbsp;“Unfortunately, I think the idea of security has basically been an excuse to limit access,” said Lawrence Norden, director of the Brennan Center’s Election Reform Program. “If we really want to ensure that our elections are trustworthy and transparent, we can do that without limiting access.”&nbsp;Kaleigh Rogers is FiveThirtyEight’s technology and politics reporter.Filed underYou are now subscribed!Email AddressSign me up

Republicans about election security these days. Fueled in part by the “Big Lie,” the baseless claim that there was widespread fraud in last year’s election, Republican lawmakers around the country have to prevent what they saw as a nightmare scenario from happening again. While the motivation to improve election security is spurious, the ostensible goal isn’t — everyone would agree that a secure election is important for democracy. Experts say there’s one very effective way for state legislatures to make the voting process more secure: pass legislation to update voting machines. But instead...

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Tech & politics reporter @FiveThirtyEight covering online extremism, disinformation, elections

Republicans Say They Care About Election Fraud. Here’s How They Could Actually Prevent It.

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