State’s election chief touts security

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The IT program in the Secretary of State’s office is on the cutting edge of any other department in the state, and voter security in Louisiana is among the top in the country.
Those two points were driven home earlier when Secretary of State R. Kyle Ardoin spoke to members of the Crowley Lions Club.
Introduced by Crowley native Allison Clark, external and community affairs representative, Ardoin said the reason his office’s IT has climbed to the top is that his office has remained autonomous.
“Gov. (Bobby) Jindal wanted to combine all the IT systems in the state,” Ardoin said. “We didn’t want to and we pushed back.”
He said combining the systems of all the department would lessen security.
“The Legislature understood,” he said.
Ardoin said what sets his office apart from similar offices in other states is a “team approach.”
He said the voting process in Louisiana uses a three-pronged approach:
— The registrars of voters handle voter registration and early voting;
— The clerks of court are in charge on election day; and
— Everything is coordinated through the secretary of state’s office.
“I was asked one time what we would do if we ‘found’ votes,” Ardoin said. “I told them the only way to “find’ votes here is fraudulently.
“Broward County won’t happen here,” he said, referring to the recent controversy surrounding the governor’s race in Florida where boxes of ballots turned up during a recount.
Ardoin described the procedures followed in Louisiana from qualifying to programming the individual voting machines to the actual counting of votes on election day.
“Our voting machines are never connected to the internet,” he said. “Nor is any of the technology used to program those machines before election day.”
While he stopped short of saying that the voting process in Louisiana is foolproof, he explained, “It would take a conspiracy of everyone involved — every single person — for someone to hack one of the machines. And you’re not going to get everyone involved.”
Acadia Parish Clerk of Court Robert “Robby” Barousse was present for the lunch meeting at Rice Palace and echoed Ardoin’s sentiments.
“I think the system we have now is bullet-proof,” Barousse said. “Acadia was the first to get the system some 30 years ago and maintain that it is bullet-proof.”
Despite that, Ardoin said his staff currently is looking toward the next generation of voting technology, possibly a combination of electronic and paper.
“In the Trump election, a lot of people thought paper ballots were more secure,” he said. “Broward County proved not so much.”
He said new technology is leaning toward an electronic system that will print out a paper ballot for the voter to check before he presses the button to cast his ballot. That print-out would then be deposited into a secure retainer as a “back-up.”
“That way, if there’s a challenge, there’s a back-up,” the secretary of state said. “That’s the challenge we have, to give voters the satisfaction they want.
“We’re proud of the system we have; we’re secure in the process; and we’re moving forward to the next level.”
During a brief question-and-answer period, Ardoin explained that one reason Louisiana holds so many elections is, “Simply put, the size of the ballots. We only have so much space. Until we go totally electronic, we’re hampered by what we can squeeze onto a ballot.”
He also pointed out that 88 percent of the eligible voters in Louisiana are registered to vote.
“It’s our job to offer voter registration and to make sure that the voting process is secure and fair. It’s not our job to force people to vote,” he said.