WFYI surveyed Indiana voters and many said federal-level accusations of voter fraud had them worried, so we bring you this closer look at why clerks, experts, and state candidates from all parties say Indiana's elections are secure.
This transcript has been edited for style and clarity.
Barb Anguiano: It's Monday, Nov. 2, and I'm Barb Anguiano. Election Day is tomorrow, and some of you may recognize this sound…
MACHINE SOUND
Anguiano: That's a voting machine in an election security test. And ahead of the election, all Indiana Secretary of State candidates agreed Indiana elections are secure:
MONTAGE: "Uh the elections are secure... I think our elections are incredibly secure... So Indiana elections are secure ... I do believe that Indiana is in a great place when it comes to election security."
Anguiano: That was all four candidates — from all four parties — running for the office. But it's a different story at the federal level, where President Donald Trump continues to cast doubt on election integrity. So today we’re going to take a closer look with WFYI reporters Zak Cassel and Caroline Beck — both cover election security. Zak and Caroline, thanks for being here.
Caroline Beck: Thank you.
Zak Cassel: Thanks for having us.
Anguiano: Zak, briefly walk us through voting machine security. Why are so many people confident the state's elections are secure?
Cassel: So, if you look at voting equipment, there are a number of different components at play. There's the ballot marking devices. There's ballot scanning devices, and there's also the e-poll books.
There are lots of concerns about hacking these machines, but the reality is these e-poll books are on a private secured network, and they're only accessible by certain officials. And the other machines, they are not connected to the internet.
Now, these machines come in two types, and both of these have some form of paper ballot. The Indiana Election Commission oversees approval of these, and then counties themselves decide which to work from.
And even before then, there are national laboratories that are a part of the Election Assistance Commission that do penetration testing, and make sure that they meet the federal government's security standards.
Anguiano: So, Caroline, the sounds we heard at the start of the podcast were from the Marion County Public testing of voting machines, which you attended. What can you tell us about that test?
Beck: They have a series of poll workers that come in, and they're literally punching in the actual candidate name, and they all are told ahead of time like who they're going to be punching in.
The results are printed out of the lection machine, like they do on Election Day, and then they go through the tabulator machines to make sure all of those things are equaling to the same amount.
And then once they have that, they've run those tests across all of the machines in Marion County as well.
Anguiano; Zak you saw a test for a different type of machine. Tell us about it.
Cassel: For Hamilton County, I went to the Hamilton County public test. It was actually the same day as Marion County's test. They tested 5% of their machines, which is a legally required amount of machines at the state for each county to test.
It's a different kind of technology. It's called direct recording electronic, that prints out on a thermal paper, and there the participants in the public tests that had arrived paired up in groups of two with a member from each major party, and then they went through those machines and tabulated the results.
Anguiano: Caroline, county clerks run these tests and our elections, what are they saying about election safety?
Beck: A lot of our county clerks and our you know folks who work in these election offices are having to do a lot of this pre-bunking work, which is something we haven't seen, like you know, in years past. Whereas they are having to be very proactive in the community and show that we are doing these tests.
It is coming back 100% clean or clear. Everything's testing appropriately and explaining to folks, just, like how the ballot process works to really dispel these myths of election fraud or election insecurities.
Anguiano: And sort of pulling on the debunking thread — some people may have heard about federal election monitors being sent to Indiana, is that part of that debunking? Is that also new or is that pretty common place?
Beck: They've done this in previous elections, and there's always some fraction of DOJ monitors that are being sent. But this year, they're trying to make it the largest operation that the Department of Justice has ever done for election security or election monitoring.
So this is fairly unique, and we're going to see some of these monitors appear in Marion and Lake County is what we've been told so far.
Anguiano: Caroline, so, what what is the difference between election monitors and federal law enforcement, which which you've reported on?
Beck: Yeah, the difference there is that election monitors are literally just people that are supposed to be around polling places just to observe, they do not have any arresting powers or won't be physically armed in any way. Whereas, like when you see like ICE agents or kind of Homeland Security people, those people typically are armed.
They are carrying you know guns around, but the monitors are literally just there to observe. So it's a different kind of presence, but it is still you know a federal presence that will be there.
Anguiano: And we should take a second to note here that the federal government has not said it will send law enforcement – just the monitors. Zak what have you learned about monitors as you've been covering this topic?
Cassel: Yeah, the DOJ monitors actually have quite a long history of use in elections. Like Caroline said, they've been used in smaller numbers before.
But a professor recently said to me that these monitors were originally used in the South to ensure that African Americans could vote in the 1960s.
In the Trump administration, there was actually an overhaul of this department's focus, leading to resignations from a lot of people who previously worked in that office. And now there's a fear that there could be prosecutors that are serving in these roles, which leads to a concern about potential intimidation just by their presence.
Anguiano: Zak what else are you hearing locally?
Cassel: Election officials I've spoken with, they say that they're confident in the election security here in Indiana, and Indiana actually has an audit program where counties can voluntarily sign up with the state to allow this program to audit elections afterward.
It's called V Stop. It's run by the Secretary of State's office in partnership with Ball State University. There's a 2024 state law that required all machines to have some form of paper record that could be viewed after the fact to verify the results.
Anguiano: Caroline, anything to add?
Beck: Another concern that we've been hearing too is, you know, non-citizens voting in elections. I think it's important to note that illegal voting happening by non-citizens is extremely rare.
One circumstance that our Attorney General Todd Rokita just found in Vigo County and is now charging the person for — they themselves have said this is the first and only instance of a non-citizen illegally voting in Indiana that they have caught so far.
So that alone is very like stark reminder of like this is an extremely rare circumstance out of the millions of voters in Indiana that cast a ballot every election.
So I think while it can happen, it's just important for voters to know that it's extremely rare, and the fact that it's now been caught and brought to the attention of you know those who run elections in our state. I think is evidence that our system is working, and there is — that we do have a secure system in place.
Anguiano: To clarify, it is true that Rokita flagged 21 people for illegal voting. We’re talking here about the only one who has so far been charged. Caroline, you recently spoke with associate professor of political science at Indiana University Indianapolis, Aaron Dusso, and here's what he had to say on illegal voting...
Aaron Dusso: "So it's like winning the lottery. It's hard to win the lottery. We almost everyone doesn't win it, but we do see people winning it on TV across the country with regularity."
Beck: Another thing he pointed out to me as well is that one of the central problems he sees with our election system is just — voter turnout.
And so the fact that around half of the voters in the U.S. won't turn out to this election that's about to happen is what he thinks should be more looked at in terms of problems with our elections.
Anguiano: We'll have to leave this conversation there, that’s all the time we have. Thank you for joining us today. That's Caroline Beck and Zach Castle.
Beck: Thank you.
Cassel: Thanks for having us.
Anguiano: And thank you for joining us for this special edition of WFYI News Now. For more resources to help you prepare to vote tomorrow, check out WFYI's Voter Guide on our website.
This interview originally aired on the WFYI News Now podcast.
