• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. election security>

Software to give voters some security piece of mind, but not in time for 2020

Bill Theobald
September 30, 2019
Tom Burt

Microsoft's Tom Burt explaining the new software to the House Judiciary Committee.

House Judiciary Committee

Microsoft is giving away software that it says will someday improve ballot security while allowing voters to verify that their choices have been properly recorded.

Tom Burt, a Microsoft vice president, testified before the House Judiciary Committee last week that the open-source software development kit, called ElectionGuard, is designed to be incorporated into the systems of major election equipment vendors – but probably not in time for the 2020 election.


In places where the software is used by election administrators, voters would receive a printed tracking code when they leave the polling place and could use that to later confirm, using any computer, that their votes were accurately counted once the polls closed.

At the same time, the software encrypts each ballot so that the voter would not be able to reveal his or her votes to someone else.

Burt said such a verification system, which was first demonstrated by Microsoft this summer, has never been possible before. He emphasized that the company is "not making revenue" from the effort.

Burt also said it is unlikely the system will be in use anywhere in time for the presidential election because of the lengthy and slow process new election systems must go through to earn certification from the Election Assistance Commission.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The commission is in the process of rewriting its technical guidelines for election systems. One issue that has emerged is the desire to find a way to allow for relatively minor fixes in software and other election procedures to be approved without having to go through the entire recertification process.

Microsoft also announced last week that it would provide free security updates through the end of 2020 for election systems that are still using Windows 7. Election officials across the country using Windows 7 – introduced in 2009 – had expressed alarm when the company announced that it would discontinue all support for the system in January, weeks before the Democratic primaries and caucuses get underway.

ElectionGuard and the extension of security updates for Windows 7 are part of the Defending Democracy Program created last year by Microsoft.

Another element of the program, called AccountGuard, provides free enhanced cybersecurity services for political campaigns, parties, think tanks, and democracy-related non-profits who used Office 365.

From Your Site Articles
  • McConnell relents, supports $250M for election security - The Fulcrum ›
  • Google expands election free security offerings - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Announcing the Defending Democracy Program - Microsoft on the ... ›
  • Microsoft demos ElectionGuard technology for securing electronic ... ›
  • Protecting democratic elections through secure, verifiable voting ... ›
election security

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Your Take: Religious beliefs

Our Staff
03 February

Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Rabbi Charles Savenor
03 February

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Our Staff
03 February

Ron DeSantis and the rise of political racism

Lawrence Goldstone
02 February

Curriculum regulations and book bans: Modern day anti-literacy laws?

Katherine Kapustka
02 February

Podcast: 2024 Senate: Democrats have a lot of defending to do

Our Staff
02 February
Videos

Video: The dignity index

Our Staff

Video: The Supreme Court and originalism

Our Staff

Video: How the baby boom changed American politics

Our Staff

Video: What the speakership election tells us about the 118th Congress webinar

Our Staff

Video: We need more bipartisan commitment to democracy: Pennsylvania governor

Our Staff

Video: Meet the citizen activists championing primary reform

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Our Staff
03 February

Podcast: 2024 Senate: Democrats have a lot of defending to do

Our Staff
02 February

Podcast: Collage: The promise of Black History Month

Our Staff
01 February

Podcast: Separating news from noise

Our Staff
30 January
Recommended
Your Take: Religious beliefs

Your Take: Religious beliefs

Your Take
Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Civic Ed
Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Podcasts
Video: The dignity index

Video: The dignity index

Ron DeSantis and the rise of political racism

Ron DeSantis and the rise of political racism

Big Picture
Curriculum regulations and book bans: Modern day anti-literacy laws?

Curriculum regulations and book bans: Modern day anti-literacy laws?

Big Picture