• Nationwide, 25% of the nation's registered voters will have to use paperless electronic voting machines on Election Day (November 6).
• For 67% of American voters, voter-marked paper ballots are the standard voting system. 37% of the voters live where paper ballots are the sole voting method and accessible ballot marking devices serve voters with disabilities; 30% live in areas where paper ballots are the standard voting system and electronic voting machines are deployed for accessibility.
• Half the states will conduct manual-count audits of electronic vote tallies. Hand-counted audits of machine tallies are essential to verified elections; without audits, paper ballots or paper records add little security value. Some planned audits will be weak audits, such as in Florida, where the audit will be conducted after the election is certified, and only one item on a large general election ballot will be chosen randomly in each county. New Mexico has strengthened its audit law, and California is planning robust risk-limiting audit pilots next year. 13 states that now have voter-verifiable paper records for all voting systems will not conduct post-election hand audits.
• In 11 states, paperless voting accounts for most or all Election Day ballots. Six states have paperless e-voting statewide: DE, GA, LA, MD, NJ, and SC. In five states, paperless voting counts for a heavy majority of votes: IN, PA, TX, TN, and VA. In KS, we estimate that at least 40% of the vote is paperless.
• In 32 states, voter-marked paper ballots counted by ballot scanners will account for most or all votes. 19 states will use voter-marked paper ballots statewide. In 13 states and DC, optical scan voting will account for the majority of ballots: AK, AZ, CA, CO, FL, IL, HI, KY, MO, NC, WA, WI, and WY.
• 33 states plus DC now provide a voter-verifiable paper record (VVPR) for every vote cast. A VVPR may be a paper ballot, or it may be a printout that the voter can view before she casts her ballot on a DRE voting machine.
• 40 states have moved toward requiring voter-verified paper records (VVPR), either through legislation or administrative decision. 6 states will not fully implement their VVPR requirements until some time after the 2012 election: AR, CO, FL, MD, NJ, and VA.
• 4 states are now mostly or entirely paperless but have enacted laws to end the use of direct-recording electronic voting machines, or fund their replacement: MD, NJ, TN, and VA. Maryland's and Virginia's statutes require a transition to optically scanned paper ballots. NJ's statute allows printer retrofits. Tennessee repealed a required transition to paper ballots in 2011, but current law requires the state to provide counties with funds to replace DREs with optical scan equipment and ballot marking devices for voters with disabilities.
• This year 30 states and DC allow military and overseas voters to return their ballots by fax, e-mail, or through a Web portal, though security concerns are starting to be heard. States such as MI, OH, and VA prohibit insecure electronic return of voted ballots. These States instead serve their military and overseas citizens by employing common-sense practices such as electronically transmitting blank ballots to voters. Some states also may extend the deadline for accepting ballots from abroad.
• The District of Columbia's pilot project for Internet voting for overseas and military voters has been scaled back to allow only electronic delivery of blank ballots to voters (though voted ballots may be e-mailed or faxed). In October 2010, DC's pilot Internet voting system for overseas and military voters was hacked in dramatic fashion by University of Michigan researchers who changed votes on submitted ballots, discovered voters' personal information – and who observed users in Iran and China attempting to break into the system. To learn more about Internet voting, please visit Verified Voting Foundation's Internet Voting Information page.
Nationwide Voting Equipment by Registered Voters
| Equipment Type | Number of Registered Voters | Percentage of Registered Voters |
Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Machines with no Voter-Verifiable Paper Record | 45021727 | 24.90% |
DRE Machines with a Voter-Verifiable Paper Record | 14699685 | 8.13% |
DRE Machines With and Without Paper Record | 345276 | 0.19% |
Voter-marked Paper Ballots/Ballot Scanners and DREs with No Paper Record | 19501550 | 10.79% |
Voter-marked Paper Ballots/Ballot Scanners and DREs with Paper Record | 33572723 | 18.57% |
Voter-marked Paper Ballots/Ballot Scanners and/or hand count*** | 67592032 | 37.38% |
Punch Card Voting Systems | 69379 | 0.04% |
Total | 180802372 |
*Jurisdictions are counties or cities, depending on how States organize their elections.
***Includes ballot-marking devices for accessibility. Approximately 1 million voters in 10 states vote in jurisdictions that count all ballots by hand.
