Our Voting System Is a Black Hole Due to Corporate Consolidation

The Election Integrity Network newsletter@electionintegrity.network recently released the following information about the electronic voting machines used in our elections.

According to a recent report from the Election Integrity Network, electronic voting has become an even bigger concern than we could have imagined, especially amid the controversy over the 2020 Presidential elections and the recent merger of three of the four companies that manufacture 90% of the voting machines in use. This merger results in a single corporation that will oversee both the check-in process at the voting booth and the counting of every secret ballot.

The issue is that Liberty Voting Systems quietly acquired Dominion Voting Systems, the company at the center of the 2020 election controversy. Liberty Voting System's founder also owns KNOWiNK, a major provider of electronic poll books that now works with Dominion’s tabulators. Three different components of the voting process, using the electronic machines required by each element from three different companies, all owned by the same individual. See something wrong here? Besides everything!

The merger of Liberty, Dominion, and KNOWiNK is a very concerning consolidation in our voting technology industry. This newly formed corporation, along with one other vendor, now controls about 90% of the U.S. voting technology market, creating a near-monopoly. This level of concentration should be raising several red flags.

• Lack of transparency: When a single company controls multiple parts of the election process, it makes it hard to verify the accuracy and fairness of the results.

  
  

• Increased vulnerability: A single point of failure can cause widespread problems, whether from hacking, software glitches, or insider interference.

  
  

• Reduced accountability: When issues occur, it's more difficult to identify who is responsible or to know who to look to for solutions to those issues.

Philip Stark, a statistics professor at UC Berkeley and a respected voice on election security, dismisses the idea that using only U.S.-based coders reduces risk, even if a single individual owns those companies. He emphasizes that domestic workers can sabotage systems just as easily as foreign actors. The main issue, according to Professor Stark, is the lack of transparency and independent audits inherent in such open source.

This is more than just an imaginary fear. Past incidents demonstrate how vulnerable these systems can be.

• Tennessee’s 2021 Williamson Error: A software glitch caused by mismatched configurations in Dominion’s system resulted in the decertification of the entire voting setup in Williamson County. Despite the disruption, no one was held accountable.

  
  

• Texas’s 2024 Dallas ballot mishap: ES&S’s ExpressLink barcode system caused thousands of incorrect ballots due to silent system delays. The issue was serious enough to lead to full decertification after the system failed to meet 10 state standards. The barcode system, advertised as a privacy feature, essentially served as a voter-tracking tool.

These examples show how technical failures and poorly designed systems can undermine voter trust and election integrity.

The integration of KNOWiNK’s electronic poll books with Dominion’s tabulators creates what many refer to as a “black box” election system. Voter lists and ballot tabulation are connected in ways that are not fully transparent to election officials or the public. This raises serious concerns:

• Could votes be traced back to individual voters, compromising ballot secrecy?

  
  

• How can election officials verify results if the system’s inner workings are hidden?

  
  

• What safeguards exist to prevent manipulation or errors?

Fulton County Board member Julie Adams has expressed these concerns, advocating for greater transparency and accountability in Georgia’s elections. Vendor consolidation makes it more challenging to identify and audit different parts of the process.

As the 2026 midterm elections near, watchdog groups and election integrity advocates are advocating for reforms to tackle these risks.

• Ban single-vendor control: Prevent one company from controlling multiple critical election functions.

  
  

• Mandate paper ballots with auditable trails: Ensure every vote has a physical record that can be independently verified.

  
  

• Require open-source software: Allow experts outside the vendors to inspect and test election systems for vulnerabilities.

• Increase transparency: Make election processes and software configurations publicly accessible to build trust.

Groups like Verified Voting and grassroots watchdogs are leading the effort, but it remains to be seen if states will act before another “glitch” damages public confidence.

Elections are the foundation of democracy. When the systems that count votes become unclear and concentrated in the hands of a few companies, the risk of errors, manipulation, or loss of trust increases. Voters deserve to know that their ballots are counted accurately and privately.

The merging of voting technology vendors is more than just a technical matter. It impacts the legitimacy of election results and the integrity of democratic governance. Without clear reforms, the future of voting could become more like a black box rather than a transparent process.

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