US midterms see a mixed use of voting machines across most states. 04 November 2022
- Calls are open for a Democracy Tech Entrepreneur Fellowship. Until the 20th of November the Alliance for Democracies, an EU based non-profit seeking to strengthen and revitalise the world’s democracies, is taking applications from citizens of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and Armenia with an established business and an innovative solution to challenges facing democracy.
- The US midterm elections are coming up in four days time and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are up for grabs. Between touch screens for voters to mark their chosen candidate, scanners for reading paper ballots and scanners for verifying signatures, technology is once again playing a big role. With virtually every state using a different combination of tech and paper ballots, errors do happen, and there is certainly risk and room for improvements to security (and legislation). Yet despite persistent attempts to undermine trust, there’s no reason to believe that results have been or will be adversely affected.
- Speaking of the US midterms, a provision in the new ‘Votes Act’ in Massachusetts, has seen the introduction of secure electronic voting. Formerly available in only five cities – Boston, Cambridge, Quincy, Watertown and Worcester – the technology is now being rolled out statewide and is being seen as a big step forward in accessibility for disabled voters who will no longer need to get to a polling place, print out ballots or sign forms. For blind voters in particular, the ability to use screen reading technology on their own devices is a huge improvement. The Disability Law Center, the Bay State Council of the Blind and the Boston Center for Independent Living had previously sued due to lack of options for disabled citizens. Now Massachusetts becomes one of only a small number of states offering the choice.
