Myth: Using Voting Machines is Safer Because Machines Don’t Cheat
If I had a nickel for every time …
That old saying comes to my mind whenever someone asks me if people will cheat when they are hand counting. Sometimes, it is not a question; it is an accusation.
My answer? Yes, I believe some people cheat when it comes to elections. Not all, but like driving a car, some will cheat. Some people speed, some don’t. Some stop at stop signs, and some don’t.
But is election cheating limited to hand counting? Are there people who cheat using voting machines? Take these two news stories, for example:
Remember that the average number of ballots cast at a polling place is 360 to 480. Election management software will be tabulating tens to hundreds of thousands, even millions, of ballots.
If thieves knew they could successfully rob anything, would they choose a barista’s tip jar or a bank vault?
A hand counter in a polling place can only cheat by as many ballots are cast in that location, likely to be less than 1,000. Hacking election software could result in thousands or millions of ballots being flipped, added, or deleted with a single keystroke.
The most important question is not whether some people might cheat when hand-counting ballots. Anyone concerned about cheating in elections should ask who is already cheating, how they are doing it, and how it affects election results.
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