Every other Tuesday, the team behind Civics 101 joins NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa to talk about how our democratic institutions actually work.
With general elections coming up, election security is once again in the spotlight.
Here in New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Sununu recently signed a bill tightening voter ID laws for future elections. He said in a press release that this legislation will instill “more integrity and trust in the voting process,” but opponents of the law say it makes voting less accessible.
Civics 101 host Hannah McCarthy joins Julia to talk about election security laws in the U.S. and how secure our elections really are.
Transcript
How do the election security laws in our country work right now?
We have over 10,000 election administration jurisdictions. So that's a medley of officials, rules and regulations. And the federal government really can't tell them what to do, for the most part. That's all thanks to Article I of the Constitution, which in very vague terms leaves elections up to the states.
States are federally required to retain ballots and other material for 22 months after a federal election, in case we need to have a recount or an investigation. But after that, it's really up to the states in terms of what they opt to do. So the federal government has a testing and certification program for voting equipment. Most states use it, but not all. These machines are required to meet federal standards for minimizing errors.
Then you have election security measures put in place by the legislatures of various states. And plenty of recent election security laws focus on that ID aspect. Other common security phrased measures include limiting mail-in voting as an option and criminal penalties for poll worker infractions.
So why do some people have this feeling that American elections are insecure and susceptible to voter fraud?
I want to start with the real and verified weaknesses in our elections. Our voting infrastructure in a lot of our states is really old. It's at least a decade old. Many voters, and often these are voters in predominantly low-income or demographic minority areas, encounter outdated and malfunctioning machinery and poor ballot design. And that means delays, long lines, lost votes.
But I think many people think of the 2016 election, during which the Russian government conducted a multi-pronged hacking and interference campaign with the aid of then Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. So Russia did not manage to materially impact votes. But the reason I bring this up is because Russia's interference was really successful in sowing mistrust and discord among American voters. It is no accident that claims of voter fraud really soared as Russian accounts spread false claims of voter fraud. The intention here was to discredit the American election systems, and they succeeded. Politicians for whom it was advantageous to promote this fraud narrative also did so.
Election officials nationwide have conducted more audits and investigations than ever before, and every listener should know that these investigations and audits have repeatedly shown our systems to be far and away more secure.
So what can people do to learn for themselves how the voting system works?
It's actually pretty simple. You can call up your county clerk's office. They will explain to you how it works. They will tell you what the process is. They will be open, honest and transparent with you. Or better yet, you can volunteer to be a poll worker. Become a part of the process. If you are unconvinced by election officials, if you are unconvinced by the multitude of investigations that prove the security of our systems and the unlikelihood of voter fraud, you can bear witness to the security yourself.
So when we look at laws recently passed that aim to increase election security, the main argument against them is it makes voting less accessible. How should legislators balance security and accessibility?
I cannot personally make recommendations for election security, but a lot of groups out there are. Many agree that one surefire way to secure our elections is the paper ballot. Many counties are pivoting to that. Advocates for election security are asking that Congress make funds available to voting jurisdictions so they can upgrade their machines, improve registration databases, conduct audits, [and] make threat assessments.
When it comes to this accessibility question, I want to point out that the evidence does not prove that our mail-in systems are especially vulnerable to fraud. It does not prove the threat of non-citizen voters to be a problem that is sufficiently widespread enough to have an impact on elections. If these laws are addressing a problem that we cannot find enough evidence of, you can use your vote to elect people who want to ensure the right to vote of American citizens in a meaningful way.
