By Erica Irish TheStatehouseFile.com INDIANAPOLIS — A series of bills to expand protections for Indiana’s voting sites garnered support from multiple parties at a Senate Elections Committee hearing Monday morning, but concerns remain as to how counties will finance security improvements.   Jay Phelps, Bartholomew County clerk, and Nicole Browne, Monroe County clerk, testified at […]

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INDIANAPOLIS

A series of bills to expand protections for Indiana’s voting sites garnered support at a Senate Elections Committee hearing this past week, but concerns remain as to how counties will finance security improvements.

Jay Phelps, Bartholomew County clerk, and Nicole Browne, Monroe County clerk, testified at the hearing on behalf of the Indiana Clerks Association. While each largely expressed support for the presented bills, the duo said the many rules introduced by Senate Bill 570 in particular are not possible without additional funding.

The bill, authored by Senate Elections Committee Chair Greg Walker, R-Columbus, expands the use of technology in ensuring fair elections. A central provision would require county election boards to use Ball State University’s voting system technical oversight program (VSTOP) to conduct risk-limiting audits on existing voting equipment after Dec. 31, 2021.

Unlike traditional post-election audits, risk limiting audits are designed to provide strong statistical evidence as to why an election outcome is correct or incorrect. Current law requires Indiana to conduct standard audits if the number of votes cast on an electronic voting system substantially differ from the number of voters in the poll book, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The bill also requires counties starting in 2022 to remove equipment that does not have a verifiable paper audit trail from polling sites. This would involve implementing equipment that simultaneously records votes on a paper form as voters place their votes on an electronic device.

Phelps told legislators that a study of 30 counties showed an estimated $4.4 million would be needed to create paper trails on existing equipment. Naturally, how much counties contribute to this equation varies depending on their respective size. Phelps said small counties would need about $8,000; medium-sized counties would require $200,000; and the largest counties, such as Allen County, would need more than $1 million.

All of that immediately follows thousands of dollars in expenses that counties faced in 2017 and 2018, after Indiana law again changed to implement new rules for election security.

“This is a big amount to have to process in a short amount of time,” Phelps said. “We think we can move this back five years, to roughly 2024, to give us more time to come up with revenue.”

Brad King, Republican co-chairman of the Indiana Election Division stood alongside Phelps and Brown when questioned by the committee. Sen. Erin Houchin, R-Salem, asked if new funds collected from SB 570 provisions to increase certain application fees could help counties afford tightened security, King said the proposed revenue stream still wouldn’t offer enough.

“Although certainly the fees we’ve discussed with reference to voting systems could help the process, they are pennies on the dollar compared to what is going to be needed to implement this in a comprehensive, practical way,” King said. “We will have to find other sources.”{/div}

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Senate Bill 570: Election cybersecurity

Here are some of the key components of the bill:

• Proficiency standards would be required for anyone who accesses the statewide voter registration file.
• The county election board (rather than the inspectors) would deliver voting systems and electronic poll books to precincts and vote centers.
• Requires precincts to be located in "secure" facilities under standards recommended by the federal Department of Homeland Security.
• Revises the procedure for selection of machines of voting systems for testing before an election.
• After Dec. 31, 2021, county election boards are required to conduct risk limiting audits in a format approved by VSTOP.
• Starting in 2022, a county may not use an electronic voting system that does not have a voter verifiable paper audit trail.
• Applications for certification of an electronic poll book must be accompanied by a fee of $1,500, and increases the application fee for certification of voting systems from $1,500 to $5,000.
• Requires voting system vendors to conduct annual background checks on certain employees.
• Voting system vendors would be required to report certain information relating to malfunctions of the voting systems.
• Requires that certain information be reported by the vendor of an electronic poll book relating to an anomaly or problem with the electronic poll book.

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