Local Electoral Jurisdictions Upgrade Voting Infrastructure to Boost Trust and Participation

“We want to be in the media for the right reasons,” Bhullar says. “Importantly, we want citizens to use our systems. It’s always an evolution. Every election, we’re learning, streamlining our processes and bringing in new technology.”

Since the 2020 general election, held at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, local jurisdictions have introduced or enhanced systems to streamline and protect elections. Some have made significant strides in modernizing their voting systems, while others have been more cautious.

“Some of it is about budget. Some of it is that the applications they need to modernize have been around for 25 or 30 years and still work, but they can’t be upgraded securely,” says Rita Reynolds, CIO for the National Association of Counties. “And then there’s change management and the challenge of training election volunteers on new systems.”

“But the biggest challenge in election modernization is maintaining the public trust,” Reynolds says. “For example, electronic poll books are definitely a modernization tool that enhances the voter experience — they’re quicker and more efficient than manual methods — but the public needs to trust that e-poll books haven’t been compromised in any fashion.”

LEARN how LA County's Human Resources Department automated data analysis for its records. 

Local Agencies Seek to Maintain Modernization Momentum

For its e-poll books, which provide election workers with the interface for checking voter registrations, LA County uses Apple iPad devices running software that maintains a constant connection to its central voter database. The poll books are used at about 800 voting centers, some in the county’s most rural areas, where broadband isn’t reliably available.

In addition to electronic poll books, LA County deploys a Cradlepoint E3000 router to each center, which offers secure, temporary networking via Ethernet, Wi-Fi or 4G/5G cellular connectivity.

“We’re even using satellite connectivity to help eliminate the digital divide,” Bhullar says.

Before an election, the IT staff installs fresh security certificates on all poll books and routers. “We make sure only the poll books are interfacing with the routers. There is no way a foreign device can get into our network,” Bhullar says.

Once the voting centers are up and running, the county uses Cradlepoint’s NetCloud Manager to monitor all network traffic. “Our network operations center also monitors bandwidth during elections,” Bhullar says. “If one carrier is getting overtaxed, we can switch over to a different one from the operations center.”

Voting occurs on touch-screen devices custom designed by LA County. They’re completely isolated from the internet, with no network connectivity, and include a built-in scanner and printer so that voters can interact in their preferred manner. At the end of the process, however, in accordance with California law, a paper ballot represents the authoritative vote.

“It’s a digital experience, but it’s not electronic voting,” Bhullar says. “We still rely on paper ballots because, frankly, paper can’t be hacked.”

DISCOVER why IT modernization is a top priority for state and local governments. 

Modernized Networks Return Swift Election Results

In Chicago, the city’s 950-plus voting centers include touch-screen devices that generate their own paper ballots. They’re also outfitted with digital scanners and Verizon cellular modems for transmitting ballots to the Board of Elections’ central facility. Each scanner’s modem has a security certificate that’s renewed before every election and establishes a point-to-point multiprotocol label-switching (MPLS) connection via Verizon’s wireless network infrastructure.

As an important security measure, the scanned ballot images are transmitted only after polls close, when the modems are temporarily activated. They’re sent to the board’s servers through secured Juniper routers for tallying.

The city has been investing in its electoral infrastructure to maintain security, allow citizens to vote where it’s most convenient and fulfill its commitment to timely results. In one recent Chicago election, an April 4 runoff, roughly 95 percent of precincts were able to report their tallies by 9 p.m., a significant improvement over recent years and a testament to the city’s built-out infrastructure.

“With the newer voting equipment, the data files we’re transmitting have gotten much bigger,” says Matt Lin, IT manager for the Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago. “So, we’re upgrading our MPLS circuits and routers to run at 1 gigabit per second.”

The city’s poll books communicate with the board’s servers over dedicated Verizon VPN links, with no access points to or from the public internet. Chicago is switching its poll books to Apple iPads for extra security.

For an added layer of cyber protection, Chicago has worked with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to install a network sensor in the board’s data center that constantly scans for vulnerabilities or suspicious activity.

“Once all the systems are up, they’re very reliable,” Lin says. “When the election is over, everything is locked up, and the certificates expire.”

Modern Tech Enhances Usability and Accessibility

Having established the infrastructure to support secure, accessible elections, LA County and Chicago have also turned their attention to tech solutions for other parts of the voting experience. LA County’s efforts fall under its expansive Voting Solutions for All People platform, which includes more than 20 systems and processes, including public-facing web applications such as an interactive sample ballot and an app that shows average wait times at every voting center.

This fall, Chicago launched a new elections website designed for better usability and accessibility. It allows members of the public to more easily check that their registration information is up to date, request mail-in ballots and more.

“Voting technology has been intentionally behind the times, but now we’re at a moment of meeting voters where they are, especially with the expansion and popularity of early voting,” says Max Bever, director of public information for the city’s Board of Election Commissioners. “Throughout Chicago, we’re increasing our capacity with digital tools. That extends to our vastly enhanced secure network infrastructure.”