With midterm elections next month, we look at Louisiana’s attempts to make voting more secure

Ever since the 2016 presidential election, allegations of foreign interference have put the focus on election security. Federal officials reported 21 states were targeted during the election, leading to safety concerns about future elections.

Though Louisiana was not one of the states targeted, Democrats on the U.S. House Administration Committee pinpointed us as one of the five lowest-ranking states in terms of election security, mainly due to a lack of paper records and requirements for post-election audits.

Earlier this year, Congress appropriated $380 million to states to improve election technology and prevent hacking. With its federal funding, plus state funding, Louisiana is preparing to replace all 10,000 of its voting machines with new, smaller machines and paper records.

But that won’t happen by next month’s midterm elections. Louisiana’s acting Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin says he expects the new machines won’t be used statewide until 2020.

The lag time means Louisiana might still face hacking risks on Nov. 6—when we will vote for a new secretary of state, coincidentally, and many of us will vote for a congressional representative in the 6th District. An added headache: two companies that bid to replace the machines are quarreling with the Secretary of State’s office over the bidding process—a controversy that hadn’t been settled as of press time.

SOURCES: U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office, local and national news services

This article was originally published in the October 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.