Republicans Are Poisoning the Well on Paper Ballots

Before the Big Lie, election security was a Democratic policy

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One of the biggest stories following the 2016 Presidential elections was election interference, particularly from Russia.¹ The aspect of interference that got the most attention was social engineering on social media; Russian trolls manufacturing outrage on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, which aimed to sow division and favour Republicans.²

Because of this, somewhat overlooked were the cyberattacks that accompanied the social ones. Russia made attempts to breach election systems in all 50 states³, and were successful in at least 7.⁴ A Grand Jury indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers related to the attacks.

Following all of this, Democrats made an effort to secure future elections, introducing the Securing America’s Federal Elections (SAFE) Act in the House, among other bills. These all languished in the Senate where they were blocked by Mitch McConnell.⁵

Despite this history, leading up to and following the 2020 election, Republicans pivoted to unfounded claims of election and voter fraud to discredit Democratic victories.⁶ After which, bills to address election security went on the backburner. This may not have been an effect of rhetoric, however, as there was a lot going on following the 2020 elections — COVID, massive job loss, supply chain failures.⁷

Cybersecurity experts have been sounding the alarm about computerized voting machines for decades, with the holy grail solution being hand-marked paper ballots.

The grassroots activists led by Jim Condit and the Collier brothers back a return to hand-counting, in which young and old turn out en massed in each community to challenge the voters, count the votes and publicly post the results at every stage. Jim Collier notes that this is how elections are still run today in Israel and India, the world’s largest democracy. Even P.J. Lyon, the BRC programmer, offered,

"I would like to see more manual recounts, because it would increase confidence in the process."

Roy Saltman reasons that mandatory hand counts of a certain percentage of all races (as was instituted in West Virginia after its voting scandal) would be enough to prevent most computer vote fraud. Although many would lampoon hand counts as a "new-Luddite" return to the days of the horse and buggy, would it not be a step up from our current status as trusting techno-chumps who have no idea if Pandora’s black box is telling the truth?

This criticism is poignant and applicable to our current situation. It was written in 1996.⁸ The idea of computerized voting machines being insecure and ill conceived is such common knowledge that it can be a punchline.

XKCD 2030 - https://xkcd.com/2030/

In 2014 Tom Scott made a video on the subject that is fairly accessible.

Now, intentionally or not, Republicans are playing it back again, this time with paper ballots. And it seems to be working, at least in terms of media coverage.

The New York Times reporting on it cites “experts” that hand-marked paper ballots are a bad idea, despite it being the primary suggestion from election security experts since before the turn of the millennium.⁹

NPR has done the same thing.¹⁰

It’s a strange editorial turn, given that in 2018, this was what NPR was reporting.¹¹

What's the best way to safeguard elections from hackers? Good old-fashioned paper ballots, says Marian Schneider, President of Verified Voting

Trump on Tuesday officially announced his candidacy for the 2024 Presidential elections, and as part of that announcement, included calling for elections to use paper ballots.¹²

In 2015, Mitch McConnell didn’t think the Democrats had the votes to raise the debt ceiling, so in a political ploy, introduced a bill to do just that and force a vote to make Democrats look bad. Democrats rallied and got the votes together, to McConnell decided to filibuster his own bill.¹³ This followed a pledge years earlier by the Republicans to block everything Democrats did as much as possible. No policy agenda, just obstruction.¹⁴

To knee-jerk object to something because of who it came from is how Republicans have operated for decades, and not a tactic that Democrats need to copy. It’s unlikely hand-marked paper ballots will materialize in the US anytime soon, but it would be a terrible shame if the death knell of the movement was driven by election deniers and those who seek to undermine the integrity of elections.

1. Wikipedia Contributors. (2022, November 18). Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections

2. Wikipedia Contributors. (2022, November 18). Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections

3. Russia Targeted Election Systems in All 50 States, Report Finds (Published 2019) The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/us/politics/russian-hacking-elections.html

4. McFadden, Cynthia, et al. “U.S. Intel: Russia Compromised Seven States prior to 2016 Election.” NBC News, NBC News, 27 Feb. 2018, www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/u-s-intel-russia-compromised-seven-states-prior-2016-election-n850296. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

5. Buchman, Brandi. “McConnell under Fire for Blocking Election Security Bills.” Courthousenews.com, 2022, www.courthousenews.com/mcconnell-under-fire-for-blocking-election-security-bills/. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

6. Kilgore, Ed. “Trump’s Long Campaign to Steal the Presidency: A Timeline.” Intelligencer, Intelligencer, 14 July 2022, nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-campaign-steal-presidency-timeline.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

7. Sarah Chaney Cambon, and Danny Dougherty. “Job Losses in 2020 Were Worst since 1939, with Hispanics, Blacks, Teenagers among Hardest Hit.” WSJ, The Wall Street Journal, 8 Jan. 2021, www.wsj.com/articles/job-losses-in-2020-were-worst-since-1939-with-hispanics-blacks-teenagers-among-hardest-hit-11610133434. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

8. “EcoTalk.” Votefraud.org, 2022, www.votefraud.org/relevance_o%27halloran_pandora%27s_box.htm. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

9. “Some Republicans Want to Count Votes by Hand. Bad Idea, Experts Say.” The New York Times, 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/10/18/us/politics/republicans-hand-count-ballots-votes.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

10. “Hand-Counting Ballots May Sound Nice. It’s Actually Less Accurate and More Expensive.” NPR.org, 7 Oct. 2022, www.npr.org/2022/10/07/1126796538/voting-explainer-hand-counting-ballots-accuracy-cost. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

11. NPR. “What’s the Best Way to Verify Votes?” NPR.org, NPR, 24 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/24/588500078/whats-the-best-way-to-verify-votes. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

12. “Election Results 2022 Live: Boebert, Frisch within Recount Margin in Colorado.” WSJ, The Wall Street Journal, 14 Nov. 2022, www.wsj.com/livecoverage/midterm-elections-congress-house-results/card/trump-calls-for-only-paper-ballots-and-all-counting-done-on-election-day-nrskRDgOwC2krduHYdbi. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

13. Weber, Peter. “Mitch McConnell’s Amazing Filibuster of His Own Bill.” The Week, The Week, 7 Dec. 2012, theweek.com/articles/469675/mitch-mcconnells-amazing-filibuster-bill. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

14. “The GOP’s No-Compromise Pledge.” POLITICO, 28 Oct. 2010, www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromise-pledge-044311. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.