How Will You and Your State Cast Ballots in November?

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By Kim Zetter

This year, as a result of a lot of changes in voting machines around the country, numerous voting districts across many states will be using new voting equipment that has either never been used in an election or has never been used in a national election involving millions of voters.

When new systems are used, problems often arise either with the equipment itself or with election officials and voters who are unfamiliar with it.

To see what equipment you and your state will be using in November and to familiarize yourself with it before the election, VerifiedVoting.org, an election integrity group that led the movement to get voter-verified paper audit trails added to touch-screen voting machines, has produced a comprehensive interactive map identifying the voting systems being used in election districts across the country. As far as I know, this is the most up-to-date list of voting equipment that exists.

The map offers several options for viewing. You can look at systems at a statewide macro level or click on a state to get a micro view of the various systems being used in each county or voting district, including the accessible equipment being offered for disabled voters. At the district level, you’ll also find information about the maker of the voting machines and contact information for the election office.

The voting machine landscape has changed a lot since the 2000 presidential election when punch-card voting systems and dangling chads spawned a heated national debate and Supreme Court battle.

As a result of the 2000 debacle, the Help America Vote Act was passed in 2002 allocating federal funds to replace antiquated punch-card and lever machines with newer election technologies. Election officials quickly spent millions of dollars to buy paperless touch-screen voting machines -- also known as Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) machines -- that were touted by their makers as faster, more accurate and easier to use than punch-card machines.

But in 2003, technical reports began surfacing about serious security issues with the machines as well as reports about breakdowns and other problems. Public opinion has forced some voting districts to back away from the equipment since then. In some cases entire states -- such as California and Florida -- have outlawed DRE machines for use by anyone other than disabled voters and have recently replaced their touch-screen systems with new optical-scan machines.

In the last two years, 131 counties across 9 states -- California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia -- have abandoned their DRE machines in favor of paper ballot voting systems, according to statistics collected by VerifiedVoting.

While some states like Nevada and Utah have added paper trails to their DRE machines, the District of Columbia and six states -- Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey and South Carolina -- still use DRE’s without paper trails statewide. A handful of other states use mixed systems -- paperless DREs in some districts and paper-based voting systems in other districts.