How Philly officials keep your vote secure — and stop dead people from casting a ballot

This article is a part of Every Voice, Every Vote, a collaborative project managed by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism with lead support from the William Penn Foundation, and additional funding from Lenfest, Comcast NBC Universal, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation and Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation.

Swing states like Pennsylvania get an overwhelming amount of political attention during election years — which means the pressure is on local election officials to track your votes. 

The Office of City Commissioners, which is responsible for overseeing all elections in Philadelphia, works with the state government to implement both technology and physical security measures for election materials. That includes making sure dead people can’t vote, keeping accurate track of the most up-to-date voter registration and other ballot integrity measures. 

“When you are talking about tabulating the results from hundreds of thousands of ballots, we need to use technology to do that,” said Seth Bluestein, one of Philadelphia’s city commissioners.

As election conspiracies targeting the region abound online, here’s how Philadelphia and the commonwealth use technology in tandem to ensure the integrity of your vote.

How is tech used to store and access voter data?

At the foundation of that technology infrastructure, the City Commissioners Office uses a software platform called the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE). It’s maintained by Pennsylvania’s Department of State to process voter registration applications and mail-in ballot applications. 

The City Commissioners Office handles making sure both paper and online voter registration get added to SURE, even though online applications first go through the Department of State.

Pennsylvania’s Department of State maintains SURE’s data security, but the individual counties are in charge of maintaining physical security. The SURE system is only accessible through specific devices provided by the state that the City Commissioners Office has to make sure are in secured rooms. 

SURE system data is available to the public through the State Department’s website. Spreadsheets with mail and absentee ballot data and with voter registration numbers by county, district and party are updated frequently.

Is there a plan to update SURE?

The commonwealth has been using the SURE system since 2006. The State Department signed a contract with Missouri-based election software company KNOWiNK in 2020 to implement a new database system but canceled that deal last year. 

“I think the system is reaching its end of life,” Bluestein said. “There’s a whole [request for proposal] review team I know the state has put in place to work with counties to make sure that the new system meets their needs.”

The contract ended because the vendor could not meet the deadlines previously set, according to Spotlight PA. The State Department completed an audit of the SURE system in 2019, which found there were issues keeping voter registration records up to date, per the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

The State Department confirmed to Technical.ly that there are plans to upgrade the system after this year’s election, and a request for proposals on election modernization software closed in August.

SURE, though, will still be used for the upcoming 2024 Election Day.

How is the registration status updated if someone’s status changes before Election Day?

Local election officials simply coordinate with the relevant department to make an update. 

For example, if a registered voter dies, the officials will get a notification from the Department of Health and cancel that person’s registration in SURE, Bluestein said. 

By the time anyone gets to the polls, those databases are already updated, too. The SURE database is accessible on electronic pollbook tablets that poll workers use to track voters on Election Day, reflecting any changes in registration status. 

Maybe the voter isn’t going to the polls, though, choosing to vote by mail instead. 

In those cases, mail ballot envelopes have barcodes that are scanned when received to make sure people only vote once. Mail ballot registration is also accessible through pollbooks so workers can see who is allowed to vote in person.

Who makes sure voting machines work on Election Day?

Philadelphia elects a Judge of Elections in each of its 1,703 districts to oversee the administration of the elections on the day of. 

Ahead of Election Day this year, the City Commissioners Office will complete legally required logic and accuracy testing on the voting machines, as prescribed by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. After the ballot’s layout is complete, election officials run sample ballots through the machines to make sure they work properly. 

This testing is to make sure all the equipment is reading the ballots accurately, Bluestein said. 

They test accessibility, make sure the printers are working properly and verify that the selections on the screen are accurately reflected on the paper ballot that gets printed. The process starts after the Department of State provides a certified candidates list and can take up to a few weeks to complete, Bluestein said. 

Among other security measures, the machines are never connected to the internet and they produce a paper ballot for the voter to verify, according to the commonwealth. 

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How else are these offices keeping your vote secure?

The City Commissioners Office takes both technological and physical security measures to keep votes secure. 

“On the physical side, we’re talking about guards and fencing,” Bluestein said. “On the technology side, we have cameras and badge access.”  

The commonwealth provides instructions for how each county should ensure security, as well. 

The Department of State provides security guidelines and equipment-use policies to Pennsylvania counties. It instructs commissioners’ offices to isolate equipment from the internet and double-check the system’s passwords and permissions. 

The hardware and software programs were also recently updated in time for Election Day, a department spokesperson told Technical.ly. 

How does your vote get from the ballot box to be counted accurately?

The City Commissioners Office uses RFID technology to track voting materials like voting machines. RFID, or radio frequency identification, tracks people and objects using wireless tags and radio waves, for example, pet microchips.  

Philadelphia implemented this system for tracking voting materials in 2020, according to RFID Journal. The city tags all voting materials at its warehouse before sending them out to polling centers across the county. 

The city uses Voting Equipment Tracking Software to watch the materials’ locations and movements. It adds transparency to the process so that every vote is sure to be counted.

RFID tags are also used to track paper ballots from the voting locations. The bags of ballots are sealed after the polling center closes and a tag is attached to it to track where the ballots are transported. 

Then, to make sure those votes are counted accurately, the commonwealth audits the votes before officially certifying the results.