Thinking about Elections

WHEN VOTING EQUIPMENT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED. Google “How old is the voting equipment used in [your county name] [your state]” . How often do you replace your computer and other devices? That’s a useful comparison that puts the right perspective on voting equipment. Electronics don’t work forever. The useful life of much voting equipment is about 10 years. Yet as voting equipment ages and becomes obsolete and prone to breakdowns and errors, it’s always an ordeal to get funding to replace it. It takes a major crisis for legislatures to come up with funding.

The 2000 election was such a crisis. In the aftermath, Congress passed legislation providing funds to enable states to update their election equipment. My state, Pennsylvania, got touchscreen electronic voting equipment, a bad choice, whose errors, problems, and vulnerabilities got worse as it aged. Yet there was never money to replace it until the state was hauled into court after the 2016 elections. You can’t do a recount with electronic voting equipment because there’s nothing to recount. There are no paper ballots. Jill Stein’s campaign challenged PA on this, and the court decision required PA to change voting equipment so recounts could be done.

PA got the new equipment in time for the 2020 election. That was six years ago. Our current voting equipment is roughly halfway through its useful life. What happens when it needs to be replaced?

Most people mistakenly think the federal government plays a major role in funding elections. Occasionally, the federal government offers funds for grants, as it did after the 2000 election, but it’s the states and local governments that principally fund elections. Besides election equipment, they pay for printing ballots, poll workers, and much more.

https://electioninnovation.org/research/who-pays-for-election-admin/