Local Opinion: Senate must act to secure our vote

In June, the House of Representatives passed an election security bill (HR2722) that would strengthen the nation’s voting systems to address known security vulnerabilities and the threat of election manipulation by foreign actors.

The Securing America’s Federal Elections (SAFE) Act would:

• require the use of durable voter-verified paper ballots;

• ensure that individuals with disabilities are given an equivalent ability to vote;

• require that voting equipment be manufactured in the United States;

• provide grants to states in order to conduct audits and replace antiquated or vulnerable systems.

A separate appropriations bill (HR3351), also passed by the House, includes $600 million for the implementation of the SAFE Act.

Unfortunately, Senator Mitch McConnell refuses to consider the SAFE Act in the Senate, primarily because he sees the bill as partisan as well as an unconstitutional imposition of requirements on the states.

However, Republicans have supported similar goals in the past, and this bill is mainly a set of modest amendments to the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 that was passed with bipartisan support. Many federal laws directly affect state election administration, including HAVA, the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

The security of voting systems varies significantly across the country. The paper ballot requirement of the SAFE Act has already been implemented in many states. But five states have no paper ballots at all and an additional eight states have no paper trail in some counties.

Twenty-nine states still use Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines in at least some jurisdictions. These machines make it difficult or impossible to conduct valid election audits and there are products on the market that would allow disabled voters to produce standard paper ballots.

Forty-two states use voting machines that are more than a decade old. The older they get the more vulnerable they become to system failures and increasingly expensive maintenance. Experts consider only three states to have the rigorous audits required by the SAFE Act, and two of these are in their infancy.

Pima County’s election system, installed before the 2016 elections, uses voter-verified paper ballots for the vast majority of voters. DREs are provided for disabled voters. The ballot tabulation machines are completely isolated from the internet, yet there is no guarantee that the systems will not experience hardware or software failures or manipulation by sophisticated hackers or corrupt industry insiders. The SAFE Act’s auditing requirement would significantly reduce such risks.

Arizona law provides for limited hand counts conducted in counties, including Pima County, that elect to do so, but for any given election, there are at least eight Arizona counties that do not do any tabulation auditing at all.

Election security should not be a partisan issue. U.S. intelligence agencies have reported on activity designed to manipulate our elections and have warned that steps must be taken to minimize risk. Yet the SAFE Act will go nowhere without the support of citizens who care about the integrity of our elections and are willing to pressure our representatives. To show your support, call or write your U.S. senators to encourage their backing of the SAFE Act.

Securing our elections from foreign and domestic interference is critical to the future of our republic. Stand with us to raise our voices in support of election security.