The United States has a disturbing habit of investing in unvetted new touchscreen voting machines that later prove disastrous. As we barrel toward what is set to be the most important election in a generation, Congress appears poised to fund another generation of risky touchscreen voting machines called universal use Ballot Marking Devices (or BMDs), which function as electronic pens, marking your selections on paper on your behalf. The rapid proliferation of these unnecessary new ballot-marking machines comes at a time when many voters have already been losing confidence in America’s election system. So why, given their inherent security problems, are these new ballot-marking devices being taken up in more and more jurisdictions across the country? As with so much in American politics, following the money sheds light on the motivation of some of the election officials choosing these systems.
