Voting tech isn’t perfect, but so far it’s holding up

The technology that powers Election Day has hit some expected hiccups, but as of early afternoon on Tuesday, nonpartisan groups say that the voting system is mostly holding up. Where it has faltered, they stress, there are robust backup plans that will ensure voters can still cast their ballots and that their votes will be counted.

Members of the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition, which runs a hotline for voters seeking information or help at the polls, said they’re so far seeing reports of pretty standard tech issues. That includes spotty Wi-Fi connections impacting electronic poll books used to check voters in more efficiently, imprecise calibration on voting machine touchscreens, and ballot scanners that are down. These problems don’t seem to be widespread or serious enough to have a major impact on voting access — although they may cause longer waits in some cases.

Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told reporters during a virtual briefing on Tuesday afternoon that while “there have been some isolated incidents … for the most part, people are arriving at the polling locations today, they’re checking in with poll workers, and they’re able to cast their ballots.” Hewitt said that’s particularly “remarkable” in light of the rampant spread of election mis- and disinformation and litigation around efforts to restrict certain voters’ access. “Democracy works when you let it, and sometimes we need to give it a nudge to make sure that there are no obstacles in the way,” Hewitt says.

Voters in Jefferson County, Kentucky, saw delays caused by the tool used to check in voters at polling locations, called “E-Poll Books,” which local officials said was the result of a software update. But the issue seems to be on its way to being resolved, according to local reports. Officials are encouraging voters to come back to vote before polls close at 6PM in the state.

Hewitt also says the hotline has received reports of issues with the Florida Secretary of State’s polling location lookup tool. Florida’s Department of State says its website has been experiencing “record-high traffic” and that voters who are having issues with the lookup tool can go to their county election officials’ pages for the same service. Hewitt says the hotline can help voters find other tools that will let them look up their polling location, too.

“Like any type of technology, equipment can sometimes fail, but what’s important are the resilience processes in place to keep voters voting in real time,” says Pamela Smith, president and CEO of the nonprofit Verified Voting. Smith says there have been some reports of polling places where voting machines were down and voters were told to come back later. She says voters should not need to make a second trip to the polls in this sort of situation — they’re entitled to request a paper emergency ballot (distinct from a provisional ballot) to fill out and cast their vote.

She also says they’re hearing reports of scanners that count ballots having issues in several states. The backup for that kind of scenario is for poll workers to store voted ballots in a separate container to ensure they are scanned and counted later on.

Some voters have also flagged issues with ballot-marking machines that appear to select a different candidate than the one they intended, Smith says. This kind of problem is common fodder for conspiracy theories and fuels distrust in the process. But Smith says there are pretty mundane explanations: it can happen when the machine is not properly calibrated or when a voter presses the screen in an ambiguous spot or accidentally touches it somewhere they don’t intend to. She advises voters to tap the name of the candidate they want, rather than the tiny checkbox, and to make sure their clothing is not touching the screen. (Should there be a tiny checkbox at all if it’s not the best place to tap? That’s a question for the voting machine companies.)

Voters should always check the paper printout of their selections before casting their ballot, and they can have the polling place discard their ballot and try again if there’s a mistake. “Equipment calibration for touch screens is just a common thing. It’s not anything to worry about,” Smith says.

Even when there is a machine involved, the vast majority of votes cast in this election will be on paper ballots. That means that even if you select your preferred candidates on a screen, there’s likely a piece of paper that will be printed with your choices and stored securely for at least 22 months in case any issues arise that need to be double-checked.

“This election is really shaping up to be the most resilient election yet,” says Smith.