Mission Statement
Our mission is to ensure accurate, verifiable and secure elections.
About Citizens for Better Elections
We are a non-partisan citizens’ group registered in Pennsylvania as a non-profit corporation. We are dedicated to promoting election security and efficiency in Pennsylvania. Voting is the foundation of our democracy. All citizens deserve to know that our votes are secure and safeguarded. We are concerned that many of Pennsylvania’s voting machines are nearing the end of their usable life, and are not capable of being independently audited or recounted. We are committed to building public support for procuring accurate, verifiable and secure voting systems which scan hand-marked paper ballots. Paper ballots are an essential check and balance to avoid election crises due to machine failure, improper calibration, or hacking. Routine, robust audits of the paper record are also a necessary safeguard of our elections.
Since January of 2017, Citizens for Better Elections has grown to a network of over 350 citizens dedicated to protecting our democracy by improving the quality of our elections. Our membership includes poll workers and Judges of Election, members of the League of Women Voters, cybersecurity and information security specialists, and professionals in education, law, information technology, public policy, and the private sector. We work in coalition with other organizations in Pennsylvania and nationwide to ensure the accuracy, verifiability and security of our elections. Join us!
Progress in Pennsylvania
Citizens for Better Elections has worked in coalition with many local, state, and national groups to win significant victories in Pennsylvania through various campaigns. Your calls and letters made these victories happen!
- In February 2021, Pennsylvania conducted a statewide risk-limiting audit of the November 2020 presidential election.
- In November 2019, Bucks County selected a new voter-verifiable paper ballot system that uses ballots free of bar codes or QR codes.
- In October 2019, Delaware County Council approved the purchase of a new voter-verifiable paper ballot system for the primary election in 2020.
- In May 2019, Montgomery County used a new voter-verifiable paper ballot system for the primary election.
- In February 2019, the Wolf Administration required that new voting systems in Pennsylvania provide a voter-verifiable paper ballot or paper record of votes cast.
- In December 2018, Montgomery County (the 3rd largest county in Pennsylvania) approved a new contract for a voter-marked paper ballot system with a verifiable paper trail.
- In November 2018, Pennsylvania settled an election lawsuit by Jill Stein requiring that counties implement voting systems with voter-verifiable paper records of each vote cast by 2020, and that counties use robust pre-certification audits by 2022. Thank you, Jill Stein!
- In April 2018, the PA Department of State required that counties select new voter-verifiable paper record voting systems by December 31, 2019, in order to improve security and auditability.
The Work Ahead
These are great steps forward, but there is still much work to do. We must continue to urge all county officials to select secure, verifiable systems and to implement robust pre-certification audits.
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