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The Alabama Senate on Tuesday passed legislation prohibiting the use of ballot tabulating systems capable of connecting to the internet in elections and requiring the use of only paper ballots when casting votes.
The two bills passed without objection or discussion in the Senate on Thursday and now move to the House for consideration. Senate Majority Whip Clyde Chambliss announced the legislation in February, marking at least the third legislative session where Chambliss has attempted to pass both measures.
“This legislation is essential to ensuring that the current process we use to run the safest and most secure elections in the country,” Chambliss said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “By banning any form of connective technology in our vote counting machine, we are ensuring that our elections remain free of any technological interference. By ensuring we always use paper ballots, we help to ensure that we always have a record of the actual votes that were cast. These bills do just that.”
Presently, the state does not use voting machines connected to wireless or cellular networks, with each machine not installed with “wireless chips, or any other piece of hardware to communicate or be communicated with,” according to the Alabama Secretary of State’s office.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen commended Chambliss for drafting and guiding both bills through the Senate.
“These bills will solidify current election practices as parts of statute,” Allen said in the statement.
