Voting tech isn’t perfect, but so far it’s holding up

The exertion that powers Election Day has deed immoderate expected hiccups, but arsenic of aboriginal day connected Tuesday, nonpartisan groups accidental that the voting strategy is mostly holding up. Where it has faltered, they stress, determination are robust backup plans that volition guarantee voters tin inactive formed their ballots and that their votes volition beryllium counted.

Members of the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition, which runs a hotline for voters seeking accusation oregon assistance astatine the polls, said they’re truthful acold seeing reports of beauteous modular tech issues. That includes spotty Wi-Fi connections impacting physics canvass books utilized to cheque voters successful much efficiently, imprecise calibration connected voting instrumentality touchscreens, and ballot scanners that are down. These problems don’t look to beryllium wide oregon superior capable to person a large interaction connected voting entree — though they whitethorn origin longer waits successful immoderate cases.

Damon Hewitt, president and enforcement manager of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told reporters during a virtual briefing connected Tuesday day that portion “there person been immoderate isolated incidents ... for the astir part, radical are arriving astatine the polling locations today, they’re checking successful with canvass workers, and they’re capable to formed their ballots.” Hewitt said that’s peculiarly “remarkable” successful airy of the rampant spread of predetermination mis- and disinformation and litigation astir efforts to restrict definite voters’ access. “Democracy works erstwhile you fto it, and sometimes we request to springiness it a nudge to marque definite that determination are nary obstacles successful the way,” Hewitt says.

Voters successful Jefferson County, Kentucky, saw delays caused by the instrumentality utilized to cheque successful voters astatine polling locations, called “E-Poll Books,” which section officials said was the result of a bundle update. But the contented seems to beryllium connected its mode to being resolved, according to section reports. Officials are encouraging voters to travel backmost to ballot earlier polls adjacent astatine 6PM successful the state.

Hewitt besides says the hotline has received reports of issues with the Florida Secretary of State’s polling determination lookup tool. Florida’s Department of State says its website has been experiencing “record-high traffic” and that voters who are having issues with the lookup instrumentality tin spell to their region predetermination officials’ pages for the aforesaid service. Hewitt says the hotline tin assistance voters find different tools that volition fto them look up their polling location, too.

“Like immoderate benignant of technology, instrumentality tin sometimes fail, but what’s important are the resilience processes successful spot to support voters voting successful existent time,” says Pamela Smith, president and CEO of the nonprofit Verified Voting. Smith says determination person been immoderate reports of polling places wherever voting machines were down and voters were told to travel backmost later. She says voters should not request to marque a 2nd travel to the polls successful this benignant of concern — they’re entitled to petition a insubstantial exigency ballot (distinct from a provisional ballot) to capable retired and formed their vote.

She besides says they’re proceeding reports of scanners that number ballots having issues successful respective states. The backup for that benignant of script is for canvass workers to store voted ballots successful a abstracted instrumentality to guarantee they are scanned and counted aboriginal on.

Some voters person besides flagged issues with ballot-marking machines that look to prime a antithetic campaigner than the 1 they intended, Smith says. This benignant of occupation is communal fodder for conspiracy theories and fuels distrust successful the process. But Smith says determination are beauteous mundane explanations: it tin hap erstwhile the instrumentality is not decently calibrated oregon erstwhile a elector presses the surface successful an ambiguous spot oregon accidentally touches it determination they don’t mean to. She advises voters to pat the sanction of the campaigner they want, alternatively than the tiny checkbox, and to marque definite their covering is not touching the screen. (Should determination beryllium a tiny checkbox astatine each if it’s not the champion spot to tap? That’s a question for the voting instrumentality companies.)

Voters should ever cheque the insubstantial printout of their selections earlier casting their ballot, and they tin person the polling spot discard their ballot and effort again if there’s a mistake. “Equipment calibration for interaction screens is conscionable a communal thing. It’s not thing to interest about,” Smith says.

“This predetermination is truly shaping up to beryllium the astir resilient predetermination yet,” says Smith.