The Antiquated Voting Machines

Voting is hard enough. Corruption riddles elections, fraud being somewhat prominent in certain districts. What if I told you that there is another obstacle in the voting process. The machines themselves. They have one job and can't even do that right in some places. The downfalls of these machines have been known for roughly 2 decades now, so why are they not being replaced? In some places, votes were being flipped, like from Beto to Ted Cruz in Texas. A professor at University of Michigan demonstrated to Congress how these machines, the AccuVote, was vulnerable to manipulation and hacking. But, AccuVote does not keep a physical record of voting, meaning that it is difficult to verify if the intended vote was the vote that was cast. The reasoning behind why votes get flipped could also be due to improper calibration. Back in 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice pointed out the outdated and unreliable software that contributes to the errors that these machines make. To get a sense of the time, in 2008, the most popular US phone was the Motorola Razr V3. This isn't even a touchscreen phone. The first generation iPhone had come out a year earlier in June of 2007. The iPhone is on its 11th generation now, so why are we still using the same voting machine technology as back then, when it had already been deemed outdated? There was a lawsuit for Georgia to use paper ballots. This voting technology is so bad that people want to go completely tech-less again. Is it 1920? No! Overall, our voting machines need a serious upgrade and soon. We are using the Internet Explorer of voting technology (that was the most popular browser in 2008). Let's call for that upgrade!

Bibliography:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-voting-machine-errors-reflect-a-wider-crisis-for-american-democracy