Voting/Elections

With heightened anxiety over election security in the midst of the 2020 presidential election, Towson University is training local election judges to increase their vigilance. Towson assistant professor of business analytics and tech management Natalie Scala is expanding a training program that identifies and mitigates potential security threats during the voting process. The goal is to protect Maryland’s elections.

This year has been a parade of unprecedented events, and the early voting in the general election is proving to be no exception. Through Thursday, more than 78 million Americans had voted. Of those early votes, more than 51 million — or approximately two-thirds — were mail ballots, according to the United States Elections Project at the University of Florida.

Once again, it’s election season, and once again, the New York City Board of Elections is under fire. This disaster is as predictable as the phases of the moon. To be fair, the long lines for early voting at sites across the city, which stretch down and around blocks and in some cases take hours to get through, are the result of many factors, some of which can’t be predicted precisely. The biggest variable is the number of people who will show up to vote. Small changes in demand can result in large changes in waiting time.

The long-anticipated 2020 General Election, which was already going to be a show of the ages, is coupled with a global outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. When voter turnout is as high as it is expected to be this year, the lines, or queues in the data science world, can become long — sometimes very long. The spring Presidential primary election in my home state of Wisconsin occurred during the statewide “stay-at-home” order associated with the pandemic, and many polling locations experienced long queues. Election officials are bracing for these queues to be even longer on November 3 when voter turnout will be much higher than it was for the primaries.

Associate Professor Natalie M. Scala standing at the ballot drop box on the Towson University campus about two weeks before the 2020 General Election. Between physical distancing measures leading to long lines to vote in person, mail-in or absentee ballots taking longer to be counted and the threat of foreign interference, there are plenty of factors making tensions rise ahead of November's general election.

Security in Mail Voting featuring Natalie Scala.

It is imperative to make sure your vote counts. The safety of mail-in voting has come into question over the last couple of months, so WAVY.com spoke with Dr. Natalie Scala of Towson University. She’s part of a research project focusing on election security, including mail-based voting. Dr. Scala says the first part of election security involves poll workers and polling places.

During a presidential election marked by heightened anxiety over election security, a Towson University associate professor is expanding a program she began in 2017 to assess potential risks to state elections and train election workers to prevent vulnerabilities at voting sites.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison offers a number of experts, story angles and resources for media covering Election 2020, including about creating resilient voting systems, the vice presidential debate and more.

What’s expected to be an unprecedented election with historic participation, especially with mail-in voting, comes with serious election security concerns. An unlocked mailbox discovered by a guy walking his dog in Baltimore City and reports of people trying to collect completed mail-in ballots from voters in Anne Arundel County are two of the latest examples.