brennan center for justice

v. conclusionVoting is the most important of all our federal rights. It is the right that protects all other rights. Despitethis, we have all too often been strangely cavalier about protecting it. The very different way we regulatevoting systems and other commercial products clearly dramatizes this fact.Given the billions of dollars spent by federal and local government to purchase and maintain new votingsystems over the last decade, 286 the failure to take stronger measures to ensure that we are tracking andcorrecting system failures is particularly troubling.We propose a regulatory scheme that would greatly improve our election systems. It would:• help level the playing field between election officials and vendors as they negotiate over serviceand hardware contracts;• increase vendor accountability and incentivize vendors to enhance internal controls;• provide public advocacy and voting rights groups with data on potential problems with votingsystems;• provide the government and concerned citizens with the ability to locate patterns ofproblems;• benefit state certification programs by supplying tips for targeted testing and review of theeffectiveness of mitigations proposed by vendors; 287 and perhaps most importantly,• allow election officials to get the most up-to-date information about their systems beforedeploying them in elections.In light of the importance of safeguarding our democracy through accurate and fair elections, these areespecially worthwhile goals. We encourage policymakers to work with regulatory experts in other fields,consult database experts, and talk to election officials and voting system vendors to ensure the creationand quick use of the best and most effective database possible.Brennan Center for Justice | 43