Dufort is the town clerk of Newport, New Hampshire, which uses open-source voting machines. Asked whether seeing how a machine works makes people more willing to believe the results, she suggests transparency may not fix distrust.
It took a little while to call around and figure out how do we get one of these because they weren't being made anymore. They were already like discontinued. We found a town that had extras that we could purchase.
…beginning to move beyond those first few New Hampshire towns. But there's a more fundamental question here. Does being able to see how a voting machine works actually make people more willing to believe the results? After all, you can show all your work, but people still don't have to believe you.
I can show somebody the source code. I can show them paper ballots. I can hand count the election in front of them. And they can still say it was rigged. So at that point, is it actually a technology problem anymore?
No, of course. I think you're right at that point. Not right, and we should remember that when you're dealing with elections, you're dealing with things that are very high stakes for people, right? For citizens, right? It's very normal to have an emotional response that say they was raked, etc.…
Which brings us back to Lee, the town clerk at Newport. Because when someone comes into her office worried about the machines, she doesn't just show them source code. She does something a little more old-fashioned.
We've had a voter that's like, I'm really worried about that machine. I don't understand how it works. And we'll take them aside and we'll explain. Here's how we test it. Next time we do the testing, if you'd like to come in and watch it, it's open to the public. We're happy to reach out to you.…