America’s voting technology has reached a crisis point of insecurity, allowing accusations of “rigging” and “hacking” to dominate our general and primary elections, breeding fear and distrust in our democratic process.
Over a quarter of American voters are forced to cast their ballot on paperless touchscreen voting machines that cannot be verified. All paper ballots are counted by electronic optical scan tabulators that are not properly audited, or – in twelve states - not audited at all. Some machines are connected to the internet, and not every internet connection is obvious. All of these machines are aging, running on antiquated software, and increasingly prone to error and malfunction, creating long lines, particularly in minority communities.
We call on Congress and Election officials to undertake the following reforms:
- RESTORE THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT Defend voter access to the ballot box by restoring proven voter protections measures in the 1965 Voting Rights Acts.
- MAKE UNAUDITABLE VOTING ILLEGAL All voting systems must provide a verifiable, voter record, that would then be the legal ballot of record.
- MAKE PRIVATE VOTE COUNTING ILLEGAL All voting systems should be under public control, with every aspect of vote counting observable to all interested parties.
- FULLY AUDIT THE VOTE COUNT Require all states to engage in robust, publicly observable auditing of the voting machines to ensure the correct results, including full 100% manual audits and recounts when necessary.
- SECURE VOTER DATABASES Require internet firewalls and paper back-up of all voter databases to protect them from manipulation.
- PROVIDE PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY Secure all voting records and ballots as public documents, accessible for audits and recounts, available under the Freedom of Information Act. Ensure that all software used in the election process is Open Source Software so that it can inspected, validated, and verified by the citizens that will be using it.
- MAKE ELECTION DAY A NATIONAL HOLIDAY Assure that citizens have easy access to the polls.
- ENACT UNIVERSAL VOTER REGISTRATION Register all American citizens who are eligible to vote when they reach voting age.