Election security really shouldn’t be a partisan issue and the fact that Republicans have made it one by refusing to allocate funding to improve it is so outrageous that it’s tempting to compartmentalize this information as part of larger narratives defining the Trump administration. Some might see it as one more example of Republican corruption and hypocrisy. Others might view it as further evidence the Republicans are colluding with the Russians en masse. Still others might make the case that it’s a proof of the fact Republicans know they can’t win without rigging elections and are continually deploying more resources towards this effort. And while I don’t dispute any of those interpretations, I do think it’s important to consider this grave threat to our democracy from a different, non-partisan perspective: who are these private companies that run our elections and why should we trust them?
Now would be a good time to mention that I have done very little research on this topic; not only to make clear that I’m not an authoritative source but also because I bet most of you haven’t researched this either and maybe that’s a problem. Anyway, there seem to be at least 18 different companies providing machines and software to run our elections although it’s clear from scrolling through the list that the effective number of such companies is lower since some have been bought up by their competitors. I’m always nervous to see consolidations reduce the number of competitors in a market but in this case I think there are solid arguments to be made for and against reducing the number of voting machine companies. On one hand, greater diversity in our electronic voting systems might make it harder for a single entity to hack into all of them. On the other hand, it might be easier for larger companies to afford implementing certain security precautions. Might find additional arguments in the comment section.
Regardless of how many different private companies are running our elections, I think each and every one of them should be under just as much public scrutiny as Facebook or Twitter for the important role they play in our election. There’s been a lot media coverage highlighting just how easily our voting machines can be hacked by foreign powers and/or teenagers but this is the ONLY story I’ve seen addressing the threat posed by the voting machine companies themselves. It describes how Kris Kobach’s recent electoral victory coincided with a voting machine company called “Election Systems and Software” (ESS) having some kind of unspecified technical issues. It’s important to point out that Kobach was losing the race before ESS started having issues and once they were resolved he had won. Also interesting that Kobach appointed the guy who chose to give ESS the contract despite election security experts expressing doubts about ESS’s product. ESS itself seems to have scandalous history of shady behavior in past elections as well as ties to people who have plead guilty to felony-level cyber crimes.
Now I don’t know for sure that ESS is currently involved in criminal activity or election rigging but I would certainly be concerned if I found out that they were contracted to count votes in my state. Do you know which private company is going to be counting your votes? What will you do if you find out it’s ESS? And even if ESS isn’t contracted in your state, how much do you know about whoever it is that will be counting your votes? Personally, I don’t have answers to any of these questions and I’m worried that too few of us do.