Problems

 

There are many problems with having all voters use touchscreens and more problems with the ES&S ExpressVote XL in particular. In the opinions of experts, the ExpressVote XL is the worst voting system choice available in Pennsylvania and all counties should avoid it.

 

Ultra-expensive and fiscally irresponsible

Choosing touchscreens for all voters requires more hardware to be purchased and more expense for maintenance, storage, set up, and delivery. The ExpressVote XL is the most expensive voting machine on the market.

 

Can modify a cast ballot

The ExpressVote XL has a critical "opportunity-to-mark" design flaw:  After a paper ballot is verified and cast by the voter, the ballot travels again past the print head that marked the ballot before it is tabulated. Either through hacking or malfunction, the XL is capable of printing additional marks on the ballot after verification and before tabulation. This serious flaw could change election results or affect the auditability of the ballots. It is common sense that ballots should not pass any marking device again before tabulation.

 

Barcodes

On all ExpressVote systems, ballot selections are printed on paper as barcodes. The barcodes are the votes counted by the system, but voters cannot read them to verify that they are correct. Below the barcodes will be a human-readable summary which voters will have to trust matches the barcode, with nothing added or omitted. Hacking or malfunction could modify the content of the barcode and the voter would not know.

 

Ballot summary

All ExpressVote systems print a ballot summary instead of a full ballot with all candidates listed. The ballot summary is printed in small, faint-text which is difficult to read through the partially-occluded, glass window of the ExpressVote XL. It is likely it will become more difficult to read over time as the glass window experiences wear. Studies have shown that voters do not verify ballot summaries carefully and do not detect errors. Summaries can be difficult for a voter to verify. Risk-limiting audits cannot detect or correct incorrect election results if voters cast unverified ballots.

 

Poor accessibility

All touchscreens can be a problem for voters who are not comfortable with technology or with screen sensitivities (concussions, autism). Long lines are challenging for voters with physical limitations. The ExpressVote XL is even less accessible to voters with disabilities than other touchscreens. The Pennsylvania certification of the ExpressVote XL lists major accessibility flaws that make it an unacceptable choice for voters with vision, hearing, cognitive, and mobility challenges. It got harsh reviews, more than any other voting system.

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Long lines frustrate voters and depress voter turnout. When all voters use a touchscreen to vote, it creates the longest lines. If a polling place has two machines, then only two voters can vote at a time. A slow voter holds up the line for everyone else. An audioballot voting session can occupy a machine for 30-40 minutes.

 

Not resilient to problems

Touchscreens are vulnerable to hardware malfunction, vote flipping, power outages, and hacking.  It puts vulnerable technology between voters and their ballots. If machines fail, all voting stops—lines get long and voters leave.

 

No flexibility to scan hand-marked paper ballots

The ExpressVote XL can only scan ballots which have proprietary barcodes printed on a 4”-wide strip of paper. It is the only voting system on the market with this limitation. Its inability to scan any hand-marked ballots has several important consequences.

• It cannot scan absentee ballots.

• It cannot scan emergency paper ballots.

• It cannot scan hand-marked paper ballots required by pending and future state and federal legislation.

 

Counties that purchase separate optical scanners are able to scan hand-marked, emergency, and absentee ballots quickly when the polls close. Counties that purchase the ExpressVote XL are the only counties that must hand-count them.

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It runs on outdated software, Windows 7

It must be undergo new testing and certification with federal and state authorities and may take time and more cost to implement. It also call into question how serious this company takes security if it's been selling their systems with soon-to-be-unsupported software.

 

No track record

The ExpressVote XL is a new voting system. It was federally certified for use in July 2018 and has been tested in only a couple of small elections.

 

Large and heavy, but fragile

It is the largest and heaviest voting system available. Most are 1/3 the size. It would require the most storage space and be the most difficult to deliver and store securely at polling locations. It is the most fragile of all the choices. There are many breakable parts, especially the large touchscreen. A complicated, all-in-one voting machine means more points of failure that can break and take the machine out of service.

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This machine was marketed specifically to appeal to jurisdictions that currently use machines like our Danahers. Little consideration was given for its security and verifiability problems--it's being sold for its "familiarity."

 

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