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Election Integrity Deserves More Than Speculation
Election administrator Damon Townsend:
"We should make it easy for every eligible citizen to vote, extremely difficult for ineligible people to participate, and nearly impossible to manipulate results."
Damon Townsend is the Cascade Party candidate for Pierce County auditor. In this article, he provides an analysis of recently released, redacted documents. Townsend suggests that while foreign data collection and voter roll inaccuracies represent legitimate security concerns, there is no evidence of widespread, manipulated election outcomes.
President Donald Trump recently addressed the nation about election integrity. Newly released documents are heavily redacted, limiting what the public can meaningfully evaluate.
From what is readable, I don’t see the clear “smoking gun” some anticipated. Instead, the documents surface four main areas worth examining: China’s acquisition of American voter data; vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems; a Michigan voter registration investigation, and; the presence of noncitizens and deceased individuals on voter rolls.
China and American Voter Data
A foreign government collecting detailed information on American voters is alarming.
Much of the basic voter registration data discussed, however, is already available public information. Political parties, campaigns and organizations, including candidates using the Cascade Party’s own voter management system , routinely use this information.
Some documents reference more sensitive details like Social Security numbers, phone numbers and emails. These are not part of the voter information freely available through a normal public records request. Still, such data is often available through commercial databases and data brokers, or has been exposed through past data breaches.
China’s government collecting information about American citizens isn’t particularly surprising — given its aggressive surveillance of its own population and sophisticated intelligence apparatus.
Here’s my take: China is a legitimate national security and data privacy concern, but based on the un-redacted material, it does not demonstrate actual manipulation of U.S. election outcomes.
Vulnerabilities in Electronic Voting Systems
The documents also highlight real risks in electronic voting and ballot-counting technology, including past manipulation in Venezuela and reports of improper remote access in some U.S. jurisdictions. These concerns should never be dismissed.
That said, American elections are highly decentralized, with systems varying widely county by county through the 50 states. Here in Washington, our counties use an all-paper ballot system where the —physical paper ballot— serves as the authoritative record.
Washington counties run elections multiple times a year with professional staff who managing these paper-based systems.
I’ve personally overseen large-scale recounts where paper ballots were hand-counted and matched machine totals 100%.
We can trust the machines, however, this means we must also maintain strong safeguards, including; paper ballots, audits, recounts, strict chain-of-custody rules and transparent testing.
Humans, including public observers, must always verify the results.
The Michigan Voter Registration Investigation
The Michigan case sounded troubling in summaries, but the released documents tell a more mundane story.
Investigators examined a voter registration activist group whose workers approached people outside stores and in public places. While there were collection expectations, the documents note workers were not paid per registration.
Concerns focused on whether some employees might have falsified forms to meet collection expectations to maintain their employment. If that happened, it should be fully investigated and prosecuted where warranted.
However, the documents do not show resulting prosecutions or clear evidence that false registrations translated into fraudulent votes. There is a meaningful difference between sloppy or fraudulent registration drives and proven election tampering.
Investigating suspicious activity is always part of election integrity.
Noncitizens and Deceased Voters on the Rolls
This is the area that raises the most legitimate red flags.
Here is a story from my own experience. While working in elections, I once took a call from a Canadian citizen pursuing U.S. citizenship. She was distraught after receiving a ballot in the mail. She had not knowingly registered to vote and did not vote the ballot she received. She was very worried that simply receiving the ballot could hurt her citizenship application.
The issue traced back to her driver’s license transaction and the voter registration process associated with it under the Motor Voter Act. This is an example of a problem that can occur when voter registration is integrated with systems serving citizens and noncitizens alike.
Similar problems exist with deceased voter records. Counties work to remove deceased voters using obituaries, death indexes and other available information. Nevertheless, gaps remain.
Not everyone has an obituary. People die outside their home county or state. Government databases are fragmented and do not always communicate with one another quickly or completely.
These are real administrative weaknesses.
It is important to distinguish between a deceased or ineligible person remaining on a voter roll and someone actually casting an illegal ballot using that registration.
Inaccurate voter rolls create unnecessary vulnerabilities and undermine public confidence. We should fix them.
The Deeper Challenge: Proving Citizenship
The noncitizen issue points to an even bigger gap: We lack a simple, reliable national system for election officials to quickly verify citizenship. I write about how improving data sharing between agencies is a start , but it is not the same as a comprehensive solution.
We face a genuine tension.
Voting is a fundamental right that should be easily accessible to citizens. At the same time, citizenship is a legitimate qualification for participating in our elections.
In the 21st century, we should be able to develop secure and convenient ways to confirm eligibility, whether through better documentation at birth, standardized identification or improved federal-state data systems — without creating needless barriers for lawful voters.
Election Integrity Requires Honesty From Everyone
President Trump’s remarks highlight vulnerabilities that deserve attention.
We must always address these claims, however, the readable portions of these heavily redacted documents do not establish widespread manipulation of American elections.
Election integrity cannot be a Republican or Democratic issue. Confidence in our elections should not hinge on whose candidate won. As the Cascade Party believes, government must be transparent, accountable and willing to improve when legitimate problems are identified.
We should make it easy for every eligible citizen to vote, extremely difficult for ineligible people to participate, and nearly impossible to manipulate results. This requires accurate voter rolls, secure systems, verifiable paper records, professional election administration, transparency and —above all— the willingness to distinguish real problems from speculation.
MORE SUMMIT
Damon Townsend for Pierce County Auditor Website.