And approximately 40 million voters live in 26 states and two territories relying on assistive voting equipment - systems that are required under the Help America Vote Act to ensure that individuals with disabilities can vote privately and independently - that has been discontinued. Many election officials using discontinued systems have expressed concerns to the Brennan Center about their ability to find replacement parts and technicians to service these machines.Ĭurrently, the principal voting equipment in 23 states with nearly 21 million registered voters is no longer manufactured. Another important gauge is whether that equipment is still being manufactured. The age of equipment is just one way to estimate how soon jurisdictions will need to replace it. While jurisdictions in many states have replaced older voting machines in the last eight years, the need to replace equipment as it ages continues. Today, 24 states, home to over 41 million registered voters, use machines first fielded more than a decade ago as their principal voting equipment. Furthermore, according to cybersecurity expert Jeremy Epstein, “from a security perspective, old software is riskier, because new methods of attack are constantly being developed, and older software is likely to be vulnerable.” For most systems, however, it is probably closer to 10 than 20. For electronic voting machines purchased since 2000, experts agree that the expected lifespan for the core components is between 10 and 20 years. Like any computerized system, voting machines age into obsolescence. By the Numbers: Outdated Voting Equipment Many of these systems are no longer manufactured, which can make it difficult or impossible to find replacement parts. Machines are aging past their projected life cycle without being replaced, leaving jurisdictions with systems that are significantly more than a decade old. Outdated voting systems, however, remain a problem. By 2022, jurisdictions in only six states (Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Texas) relied on those machines as their principal voting equipment - that is, the technology used by most voters on Election Day in an election jurisdiction. Security experts have long identified DREs as a unique security risk. In 2012, for example, the majority of Election Day voters in some or all counties in 16 states voted on direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines that do not produce a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). Since that report, the nation has made significant progress toward replacing its most insecure systems. They are also more susceptible to error and fraud, risking public confidence in elections. Outdated machines suffer frequent breakdowns and create long lines at polling places. Fourteen states used at least some machines that were no longer manufactured and difficult to repair. The Brennan Center’s first overview of voting systems in the United States, published in 2014, found that 43 states relied on machines that were past or near the end of their expected lifespans. Today, our organizations update those analyses with a look at the state of the nation’s voting systems ahead of the November 2022 midterm elections. Those analyses relied significantly on data provided by Verified Voting.
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