How Voting Works

Latest Episodes:

Episode 9 – Who Watches the Voting Machines? Sep 25, 2026

Show notes

When you buy a car, you have some reasonable expectation that the car will be safe to drive because manufacturers are required to perform a series of standard tests by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
When an airline buys an airplane, and when you fly on that airplane, we can reasonably expect that that airplane is safe to fly because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates airplane designs, manufacturing, and even the airworthiness of individual airplanes, maintenance schedules etc.
So, this November, when you fill out your ballot and insert into a precinct tabulator, or when you fill out a ballot at home and mail it to be counted at county headquarters, how do you know that the voting equipment your county is any good? And when the county was buying that equipment, how did they know? Who’s doing the due diligence?

How Voting Works is a limited series podcast made by VotingWorks, the only non-profit maker of voting machines in the US.
Questions and comments are always welcome. Email us at how@voting.works
All episodes licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution License. Use as you please, just give us credit by linking back to https://how.voting.works

Episode 8 – Tampering with Voting Equipment in Mesa County, Colorado. May 20, 2026

Show notes

Tina Peters is serving a jail sentence for tampering with voting equipment when she was clerk in Mesa County, Colorado. The situation has become particularly political, but what actually happened in Mesa County, Colorado?

In this episode, we cover the technology and the facts. How voting works in a vote-by-mail state like Colorado, what Tina Peters actually did, and what actual election risks her actions caused.

References:

Tina Peters
NYT and VoteBeat coverage

Episode 7 – Fraud allegations in 2020 and 2024, what to make of them? Dec 19, 2025

Show notes

Typically, election security experts shy away from engaging with fraud allegations, because the theories are numerous and often lacking in evidence.

But it's Christmas time, and you're probably hanging out with family, and surely stories about voting machines and election fraud are bound to come up. You need some cold, hard facts to bring to the table.

This is the podcast episode for you.

References:

Special Episode – Election Office Hours with Professor Michael Alvarez Oct 09, 2025

Show notes

A special episode of How Voting Works.

Last week, I was interviewed by Professor Michael Alvarez. We first met more than 20 years ago when we both worked with the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project.

Professor Alvarez has a podcast and video series called Election Science Office Hours, and I was his guest.

Check out the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJkiWDh7igk

And check out Professor Alvarez's whole video series: https://www.youtube.com/@LCSSPCALTECH

Episode 5 – Post-election audits to check the machines May 16, 2025

Show notes

How do we trust our ballot tabulators? Post-election audits, that's how.

Risk-Limiting Audits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk-limiting_audit
More about Risk-Limiting Audits
https://risklimitingaudits.org/
Professor Halderman's analysis of Antrim County 2020
https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity22/presentation/halderman
Forensic Audit of Windham, New Hampshire 2020
https://www.doj.nh.gov/sb-43-forensic-audit

Episode 4 – Ballot Marking Devices and Voters with Disabilities Nov 12, 2024

Show notes

In most democracies other than the United States, voters with disabilities are often required to forgo ballot secrecy in exchange for their right to vote. In the United States, that's considered unacceptable, and in fact it is illegal. This is why we have ballot-marking devices.
Sources

Episode 3 – Electronic Voting Machines and the Paper Ballot Oct 21, 2024

Show notes

For a few years in the early 2000s, the US deployed fully electronic voting machines, also known as DREs, fairly broadly. Today, DREs are mostly gone, replaced by voter-verifiable paper ballots.
Sources:

Episode 2 – Voting Machines Oct 09, 2024

Show notes

Let's talk about why we need voting machines in the US, and the specific types of voting machines we use and how they work.

The Reality of Full Hand Counts: A Guide for Election Officials, by the Elections Group
Harris County voters wade through longest ballot in the state on first day of early voting, October 2022
A Brief Illustrated History of Voting, by Professor Douglas W. Jones
THE 2000 ELECTIONS: THE PALM BEACH BALLOT; Florida Democrats Say Ballot's Design Hurt Gore, New York Times, November 2020
The Center for Civic Design

Episode 1 – The Secret Ballot Sep 24, 2024

Show notes

Welcome to How Voting Works, a limited series podcast about the mechanics of how we vote in the United States, and in particular about the technology we use to cast our votes.
This is Episode 1.
The Secret Ballot is the most interesting, profound, and complicated aspect of modern elections. It's also the one requirement that makes everything about elections difficult.
References:

"One Vote Counts for None", Nov 14th, 2006.
https://www.kait8.com/story/5675029/one-vote-counts-for-none/
"E-voting 2006: A touch screen, a missing vote, a mystery in Arkansas", Nov 14th, 2006.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/1647712/e-voting-2006-a-touch-screen-a-missing-vote-a-mystery-in-arkansas.html

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