The US Elections
A Systems Engineering Perspective on Electoral Fraud
Elections are man-made systems designed to select leaders to govern and oversee society. Electoral systems and methods have evolved from the agora headcounts in Ancient Greece to Papal selections in Rome to the political party system in the 18th century that took France and England by storm. However, like with all man-made systems, there are pros and cons, given that no one electoral system would be sufficient enough to justify the expectations of a vast populace like the United States Electorate. The US prides itself on being a frontrunner in maintaining and upholding the tenets of democracy, and electoral systems are the cornerstone of strong democracies. The idea that the power to elect leaders lies solely in the hands of the many and not in the concentrated hands of a few people is one that the US has tried to project and protect for decades. However, that notion has come under fire in recent years, especially after the 2020 US Elections, with allegations and court hearings into the perceived fraud that took place during the elections dominating our airwaves more than three years later.
The US electoral system is a complex system of systems that has been the subject of much debate and controversy in recent years. As a systems engineer, I was interested in investigating the claims of electoral fraud from a systems engineering perspective and identifying potential areas for improvement. In this article, I will examine the various components of the US electoral system, and evaluate how they can be designed and optimized to prevent fraud and ensure the integrity of the democratic process.
Stakeholders
The US electoral system is a multi-layered system that involves various stakeholders, including voters, candidates, election officials, poll workers, voting system manufacturers, policymakers, auditors, and the general public. Each of these stakeholders has a unique set of concerns and requirements that must be addressed in the design and implementation of the electoral system.
- Voters: these are eligible citizens or residents registered to vote. They are the primary users of the electoral system and key participants in the electoral process. Voters are concerned with the accuracy and security of their votes as they hope it leads to their preferred candidate winning.
- Candidates: these are eligible, registered and screened individuals standing for elections and soliciting votes from the voters. Their main point of concern during the process is the fairness and transparency of the election process.
- Election Officials: Election officials and poll workers are responsible for administering the election, they lay down the guidelines and rules. Given that there is no central coordination of elections across the US, each State has its officials and unique rules that they follow. Their main concern during the process is to ensure that their laid down rules are adhered to and that the system has not been manipulated by extant or foreign sources and to also exude confidence in the process.
- Voting System Manufacturers: these manufacturers provide the technology and equipment used to cast and count votes. Their main focus is to maintain the integrity of their systems and ensure they are safe from cyber-attacks or manipulation. In the last election, Dominion Voting Systems, a major voting systems manufacturer was taken to court to defend the integrity of its machines in some polling units.
- Auditors: Auditors are important in maintaining the integrity of the US electoral system. In polling units where a recount is necessary, Auditors come in to ensure results are accurate and audit the accuracy of the voting systems as well. They provide independent unbiased reports.
- Policymakers: these cover lawmakers at both State and Federal levels and they are responsible for setting the rules and regulations that govern the election process.
The Environment
The environment in which the electoral system operates is also an important factor to consider. The US electoral system is designed to accommodate a diverse range of environments, from urban centers to rural areas, and must be able to adapt to different voting systems, such as paper ballots, electronic voting machines, and mail-in ballots. The environment is particularly important as the geography and demography of polling units influence the kind of processes put in place on Election days. Some polling units are very notorious for stringent checks before voters are allowed to vote while some other polling units, especially those situated within gated or closed communities are not as stringent. The lack of standardization has always been a challenge given the various jurisdictions, laws and officers that superintended over these elections across the 50 states. Compare California with more than 18 million registered voters to Wyoming with less than 300,000 voters, the processes employed across these two states will vary to cater to their unique needs. However, applying system engineering principles can help achieve some sort of standardization irrespective of the unique contexts and help restore trust in the process. We will go over some of these SE principles.
Applying Systems Engineering Principles
Various design principles and control measures can be applied to ensure the integrity of the electoral system. For example, the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, Section 5.6 under the Information Management Processes, describes the process for maintaining information according to integrity, security and privacy requirements. The process goes further to describe how to dispose of unwanted data (also Section 4.14) safely; this is particularly important after elections and counting to avoid exposure of sensitive voter information. Trust is a very important tool in managing the US elections, and the Handbook guides the building of trust. One of the ways to build trust and confidence in the system is through open communication and collaboration among stakeholders (mentioned above) and the Acquisition and Supply process in Section 6 of The Handbook provides guidelines for communication with stakeholders across board. Section 5.8 defines quality assurance processes that election officials can leverage to minimize the risk of compromising the system; a Quality Assurance Plan will allow for easy identification and bugs and provide guidelines on how to fix them internally before key external stakeholders get to interact with the system.
In terms of the specific components of the electoral system, there are several areas where a systems engineering approach can be applied to enhance the quality and outcome of that component. For example, voter registration systems can be designed to ensure secure and accurate data management by viewing the voter registration system as a system of interest (SOI). With the voter database being our SOI, the other databases like the SSN database will become one of the enabling systems integrating into the main SOI and exchanging updated information on voters with the system. This is particularly important for instant updates of voters when they change addresses and will solve the problem of outdated voter registration lists. The design of the Ballots can also leverage system lifecycle design (the concept and production phase) to ensure they are designed to be accessible and fit for purpose. What about retirement? What happens to these ballot boxes and machines when elections are over? How are they stored and kept? These are critical factors that will ensure they are not tampered with during off-cycle periods.
Voting machines are another critical component of the electoral system and must be designed and tested to ensure accuracy and security. The INCOSE Handbook in Section 5.5.2 recommends independent configuration audits to assess the evolution of a system and this can be applied in assessing voting machines. Subjecting them to SE processes like Technical Performance Management, Measures of Effectiveness and Measures of Performance will help reveal the true state of these voting machines and identify steps to improve them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the US electoral system is a complex system of systems that will benefit from a systems engineering approach to ensure its integrity and prevent fraud. By applying SE principles and control measures, the electoral system can be optimized to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the election results.
References
“INCOSE. (2015). INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook: A Guide for System Life Cycle Processes and Activities (4th ed.). Wiley.”
“History of Elections.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/election-political-science
