Currently, the voting machine industry is dominated by three companies that are backed by private equity, highly litigious, and eager to hide vulnerabilities the second they’re discovered, all of which further fuels speculation and distrust in elections.
VotingWorks is the opposite. Not only does the scrappy non-profit defy industry norms by publishing its prices and offering its products free of charge for jurisdictions to pilot, but it also publishes every line of its code on GitHub and invites critics to probe for vulnerabilities. The company argues that this radically transparent approach makes their technology more secure and may even restore faith in voting machines.
This year, more and more jurisdictions are taking interest in VotingWorks, including the state of New Hampshire, where a small but militant group is pushing for hand-counting ballots, and a deep-red county in California that recently terminated its contract with Dominion. Spenser Mestel investigates whether VotingWorks can break the election tech monopoly and help restore faith in American democracy.
