Question

Maintaining the people's trust in states' voting systems is just as important as securing the hardware or software of these systems. What are some ways the U.S. can maintain or reestablish trust in voting systems when the people are already becoming wary of the security of the systems and the legitimacy of the vote

Answer 1

In a democratic republic like US it is important to administer free and fair election in order to gain the consent of the governed. In 2016 this democratic process came under attack. Unfortunately the election infrastructure of US is ill prepared for future elections, and this is the reason of lost people’s trust in voting system. Out dated voting machine, lack of verified paper ballots or records and inadequate cyber security measures for voting machines and database are the few vulnerabilities that are leaving US elections open for attack. Protecting of election is a matter of national security and should be acted immediately. The support from all level of government should be given to achieve this.

Following are the few steps that can be followed in order to gain the people’s trust in voting system-

1. Replacement of old voting machines with the error free new one.
2. Conducting robust postelection audits in order to confirm election outcomes.
3. Usage of voter verified paper ballots for every vote cast.
4. Implementing cyber security standards for voter registration systems.
5. Mandatory pre-election testing of all the voting machines and alsp performing continuous vulnerability analysis.