Marian K. Schneider: “Verified Voting calls on the Pennsylvania legislature to appropriate additional funding to subsidize the cost of replacement.”
The following is a statement from Marian K. Schneider, president of Verified Voting, formerly Deputy Secretary for Elections and Administration in the Pennsylvania Department of State, on Pennsylvania’s announcement that all counties have until the end of 2019 to move balloting to voting machines that produce a voter-verified paper record. For additional media inquires, please contact aurora@newheightscommunications.com . Download as pdf.
Pennsylvania took a critical step earlier this year to replace its aging voting systems. The announcement this week that it will eliminate paperless voting machines by the 2020 election is an important step because we know the only way to address the risk of software problems is to require a physical ballot that can be used to check computer-generated votes. But it still leaves many counties in the largest swing state unable to monitor, detect, respond and recover from any possible attack in the upcoming midterm election.
Since 2006, 83 percent of Pennsylvanians have voted on unverifiable direct recording electronic (DRE) systems. This announcement guarantees that the most severely vulnerable systems will be on the path towards replacement, but it will not be in time for the 2018 midterms. Still, as the Commonwealth moves forward with these steps to increase security, it also serves as an example for other states to do the same.
Verified Voting calls on the Pennsylvania legislature to appropriate additional funding to subsidize the cost of replacement. In addition, we urge the Department of State to insist that all newly certified voting systems include the most secure features and will be ready for robust post-election tabulation audits.
We applaud Governor Wolf’s commitment to ensuring the integrity of Pennsylvania’s elections. As the largest swing state, the administration’s move to safeguard Pennsylvania elections by requiring counties to select these new voting systems will make Pennsylvania’s elections more resilient and able to recover from any event that might interfere with the software. This is exactly why security experts recommend that voting machines are resilient. Pennsylvania’s actions reflect the understanding that our election infrastructure must be secure.”