The Nevada county decision to replace electronic voting with hand counted paper ballots marks the progress the 'ban the machines' movement is making nationwide and it should concern everyone, especially the technology community.

Aug. 17, 2022 | by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

As the election season unfolds, so does the debate over electronic voting machines. A debate I never thought we'd be having.

Since my June commentary on the need to improve voting machine integrity, I have gained a fuller understanding of the movement I described to discredit a technology that has been in place for decades and has made voting easier for everyone, especially persons with disabilities.

There exists, unfortunately, a network of individuals who claim to be experts on voting machine technology who want to replace electronic voting machines with paper ballots and hand counting. They are largely affiliated with the movement challenging the results of the 2020 election, and they include no shortage of politicians.

Nye County, Nevada, the state's largest county by area, recently voted to replace electronic voting with paper ballots and hand counting — purportedly in the interest of improving election integrity and transparency — the first county in the state and, according to the Associated Press, one of the first in the country — to take such action.

This decision in my home state marks the progress the "ban the voting machines" movement is making nationwide and it should concern everyone, especially the technology community.

Dominion Voting has noted on its website that "lies and misinformation have severely damaged our company and diminished the credibility of U.S. elections, subjecting hardworking public officials and Dominion employees to harassment and death threats." The company has been waging a costly legal battle against its critics.

As for improving election integrity and transparency, replacing voting machines with paper ballots and hand counting flies in the face of what common sense might tell you.

Common sense notwithstanding, I remember my newspaper experience in the 1970s and 1980s reporting paper ballot contests: the long hours election workers spent counting ballots — consuming pots of coffee to stay awake through the next morning. Focusing on the job was excruciating and counting errors did occur, even for the most conscientious election workers.

No one disagreed with Nye County's decision to replace electronic voting with paper ballots more than Sandra "Sam" Merlino, the county clerk who has administered elections for more than two decades.

"Something's gotten out of hand in Nevada as far as I'm concerned because a lot of officials are resigning," Merlino told me in a recent phone interview following the county commissioners' decision.

While Merlino, a Republican, resigned her clerk position following the commission vote, she insisted that she planned to retire at year's end anyway, having not sought re-election.

And while she opposes hand counting paper ballots, she has no problem with auditing the results. "That's absolutely a great thing," she said.

"I was so happy to get electronic voting machines," she said, recollecting the voting machines' arrival in 2004, affirming there have been no issues with the machines' performance.

Some dissatisfied candidates raised complaints over the years, she said, but such complaints did not begin with the machines.

One candidate who complained in 2010 was granted a recount, which confirmed the original results.

The public meeting for the recent Nye County vote clearly exhibited the depth of today's "ban the machine" movement.

The meeting's agenda described the action's purpose as "to ensure accuracy and transparency of the democratic voting process."

At the start of the meeting, Merlino gave an explanation on how the electronic voting process works. The commissioners then gave the stage to a handful of "experts," some from out of state and none of which were public election officials, to describe the machines' alleged shortcomings.

One individual who cited a decades-long background in IT and cyber security claimed the software for the Dominion Voting machines did not meet federal guidelines. According to the meeting's minutes, he said he hacked the machine's database and was able to flip votes without leaving a trace, which he said could be done with a USB placed in the computer, providing the person was in the area of the machine.

Another presenter who said he ran a security business said voter registration lists could be changed in the cloud. He further claimed he found voting machines containing illegal software that allows a nefarious actor to make changes in the database without leaving a trail.

Merlino later pointed out that the machines are not connected to the Internet and outsiders do not have unauthorized access to the machines. The machines also require a USB with the right serial number to work.

What was most evident from the meeting's minutes was the level of expertise needed to grasp how voting machine technology works. Here is where public officials can use some help from the technology industry. It is also an area where the technology industry needs to step forward.

Organizations such as the Election Infrastructure Initiative, the Center for Election Innovation & Research and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission can assist government organizations with election technology.

Beyond the extent of the "ban the machines" movement exhibited at the Nye County meeting was the conflict it has created.

While the commissioners' vote was unanimous, audience reaction was not. One commissioner counted 13 people in the room in support of the measure and 10 opposed.

A representative of the Nevada Disability Political Action Coalition Group and the American Chapter of the Blind of Nevada said these groups last year championed and passed a bill which codified electronic voting and that not all blind people know how to read Braille.

Others pointed out paper ballots and hand counting will create more work for the election staff.

One person questioned the assumption that hand counted balloting is less corrupt.

Merlino's presentation on the electronic voting made it clear that the process is not devoid of human input. The clerk creates the ballot layouts, sends them to Dominion Voting, which creates the ballots and sends them back to her. After the machines are installed in the voting room, workers follow a checklist to make sure the machines are empty of votes. The process then continues.

It is hard to believe any system is 100% foolproof, but to date, electronic voting opponents have offered little if any proof to support their claims. Those who believe in the progress technology offers need to make their case in public forums.

Photo courtesy of the State of Nevada.

Elliot Maras is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times. He brings three decades covering unattended retail and commercial foodservice.

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