NPR

Technology Has Made Voting Lines Move Faster But Also Made Elections Less Secure

In 2016, almost half of all in-person voters checked in to their polling place electronically. There are no federal regulations for the technology they used.
A poll worker uses an electronic poll book to help voters check in at a polling center last November in Provo, Utah.

From 8 a.m. to noon on Election Day last November, voting in Johnson County, Ind., ground to a halt.

Lines at precincts across the county, just south of Indianapolis, swelled. Some voters waited hours to cast a ballot; some left furious that they were unable to do so.

"People weren't happy. People had to leave and go to work," said Cindy Rapp, the Democratic member on Johnson County's election board.

The county votes on electronic voting machines, which don't provide a paper trail — something cybersecurity experts vehemently warn against.

But those machines weren't what caused the issue in November.

Instead, the problem came from

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