Work on new voting system guidelines already in motion after Trump executive order

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The Executive Decree orders the US Elections Aid Commission to work on the ban on barcodes in a revision of the voluntary voting system directives, certification standards That most states rely on their voting equipment. And the process in several stages of modification of standards already begins.

A first step was July 2, when the American EAC called a meeting of its technical development committee of directives, a group of electoral managers and technical experts.

EAC’s notice of meeting indicates that the technical committee, which has currently several vacant posts, will envisage an update draft Guidelines at this meeting.

The president of the EAC, Donald Palmer, in an email answer to the questions of Boackat, said that there were “security problems expressed by the executive power, the legislatures of the states and the stakeholders on both sides of the aisle” concerning the use of bar codes and QR codes, and the meeting of July 2 was a required step in the regular updating process.

“With this examination, the CAE is sensitive to the needs of electoral officials and the evolving security requests for our elections,” he said. “The collection of comments from our advice and the public is a chance for the community to provide its essential contribution to these changes.”

Building voting systems according to new standards, testing them in laboratories accredited by the federal government and certifying them takes a long time. The last set of revised directives, VVSG 2.0, was adopted in 2021, but no certified system under these directives has yet struck the market, although some follow the process now.

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It is not clear what the CAE will do if the technical committee refuses to approve guidelines revised on bar codes. But electoral officials know that the general public does not closely follow the federal rules for developing rules and may not understand that certified equipment according to previous directives can be used safely and produce specific results. They fear that the decree has already sowed a public doubt on the integrity of the voting equipment.

“No matter what is happening thanks to the process of standards because voters will not hear this part,” said Amy Cohen, executive director of the National Association of State Directors. “The voters hear the president have said it, and that the optical challenge will be very difficult for the elections in 2025 and beyond.”

State legislators could also try to act by themselves to carry out the president’s priorities, regardless of what is happening with the decree. This could be expensive for local jurisdictions. Rezabek said Ohio state legislators had recently considered legislation that would oblige localities to use certified electoral equipment for VVSG 2.0, which would require the purchase of new machines.

“Then we are in trouble because this one, I have no funding,” he said. And even if he did it, he said, “The manufacturer did not have him to give us.”

Rezabek, a former legislator of the Republican State, worked with the association of Ohio electoral officials to respond to their concerns and put pressure on the legislators of the States. They have not yet adopted such a requirement.

Electoral officials of other states are also worried. In Texas, director of state elections Christina Adkins told the county elections on a call this month That her office was “in the discussions”, with the CAE, which, according to her, “understands the impact of all the decisions they make in this area”.

“I would like to clearly specify that we are linked to federal certifications,” said Adkins. “Our law of the State requires that any modification of federal certifications generally applies to Texas systems.”

Some counties are already moving to replace the equipment due to the decree. In the county of Williamson, Texas, the commissioners voted to spend more than a million dollars to replace their current voting system, which relies on bar codes, by equipment that does not Local news reports.

The County of Los Angeles, the largest voting jurisdiction in the country, uses personalized voting equipment, and publicly publishes a key To decipher your QR code, reassure the public that the codes can be checked to verify that they precisely reflect the choices of voters.

Elections managers have “evaluated the impact” of having to modify or replace more than 31,000 voting marking systems which are estimated at more than $ 141 million, the chief of the county, Dean Logan, wrote in judicial deposits linked to one of the proceedings contesting the decree.

Money is only a consideration.

“Even if the CAE goes ahead, modifies these standards and tries to apply them to existing voting systems, the time to make this type of significant change to a voting system … It is generally a process of several years to do so,” said Logan in an interview with vote. “So, a part of what is not well constructed in this order is to understand the chronology.”

Natalia Contreras contributed to the Texas shot voting journalist.

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