Bill to Remove Modems from Voting Systems Introduced in the General Assembly | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Dr. Andy Jackson.

    Should our voting machines have modems?

    Several North Carolina Senators say "no."

    Senators Chuck Edwards (R-Buncombe, Henderson, Transylvania), Warren Daniel (R-Avery, Burke, Caldwell), and Ralph Hise (R-Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Yancey) introduced a bill (Senate Bill 743) requiring all voting equipment in North Carolina to be free of modems:

    [T]he State Board of Elections shall require that all voting equipment used for elections in this State containing a modem be removed or replaced by September 16, 2022. The State Board of Elections shall submit a report to the Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee by November 1, 2022, on the removal or replacement of voting equipment required by this section.

    The bill should not be controversial. State law already prohibits election equipment from being connected to networks via modem or any other means (GS 163-165.7(j)). The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) has already worked with some county elections boards to remove modems. The bill would simply be codifying and requiring what the SBE has voluntarily started to do already.