INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WOWO) – The first paper backup for electronic voting machines has been approved by the Indiana Election Commission.
The voter-verifiable paper audit trail, or VVPAT will allow voters to verify that their vote was recorded correctly, according to the Journal Gazette.
Around half of the counties in Indiana use direct record electronic voting machines. Those machines do have a paper trail in the rear of them, however the voter cannot see it. Paper trails will be added to those machines to make them visible.
$10 million has been provided by lawmakers to install VVPAT on 10% of the electronic voting machines. These additions will be visible by voters starting this fall. However, Allen County may not have theirs in place that soon as officials are still obtaining information on the equipment.
The goal is to have all voting machines in the state equipped with VVPAT by 2029.
Connie Lawson, Secretary of State, says Adding VVPATs to election equipment will help boost voter confidence and allow us to implement risk-limiting audits. Together, these practices will show voters at the polls their vote is safe and secure, and following up with a post-election audit will confirm their vote was counted. As we prepare for the upcoming presidential election, we will be working to protect 2020 and beyond.”
There are 715 direct record electronic machines in Allen County. To install VVPAT to all of them would cost $1.2 million.
A spokeswoman for Connie Lawson said the office will be checking with each county to see what it needs.
A few counties in the state have a pilot program according to Beth Dlug, Allen County’s Director of Elections. Allen County may want to see the results of the pilot first.
Dlug says “I can see the merit in them, and anything that provides more transparency for voters is a great thing, but we have to do more research.”
A major concern is how the 10% machines equipped with VVPAT will be dispersed. This means that some voters will get to vote on the newly equipped machines and some will not.
Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, Kosciusko, Noble, Wabash, Wells and Whitley are all area counties with direct record electronic machines.
There are some counties in the state that have optical scan machines that have paper ballots which are marked by voters and then the machine reads them. Since that is already a voter-verifiable machine, those will not need new equipment.
In Indiana, all election equipment goes through a review and testing process before they are used. The Election Assistance Commission must first approve the equipment then the Voting System Technical Oversight Program at Ball State University tests and reviews the machines to make sure they meet Indiana standards.
Finally, after the prior approvals, the machines go to the Indiana Election Commission.
