Why election resilience is more important than ever

Mark Lindeman, the policy and strategy director at the nonprofit Verified Voting, joins the Priorities Podcast to explain that post-election audits are one of the most important tools administrators have in combatting the increasing uncertainty and misinformation trailing U.S. elections. “With the federal government rowing in the wrong direction on all of that, it’s all the more important to work on resilience downstream,” Lindeman says. “It’s all the more important to be able to both correct anything that might go wrong with voting systems and to provide all the stronger assurance that nothing terrible has gone wrong.” Lindeman explains how Maryland’s new risk-limiting audit, which scales in size depending on the closeness of the contest, is helping the state boost confidence in elections.

This week’s top stories:

Ohio last week became the latest state to join a voter registration database operated by Alabama, further widening the rift between how Democratic and Republican leaders administer elections. It also became the latest conservative state to leave the Electronic Registration Information Center.

Advancing legislation that would require Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote could create chaos for state and local election offices, a state election official and a voting expert told StateScoop. The House of Representatives last Thursday passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act, a bill that has received strong support from congressional Republicans who’ve deemed the measure necessary to ensure that only citizens vote in U.S. elections.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday announced that Brandon Ragle, who has served as the state’s acting chief information officer in recent weeks following the departure of CIO Sanjay Gupta, has been appointed to the full-time role.

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