The Iowa Democratic caucus, the first election of the 2020 cycle in the U.S., seems to have played into experts’ most dire concerns about election integrity. Rather than a harbinger of disaster to come, we need to recognize this as a warning that it’s all hands on deck to ensure election security. It’s well past time to activate everyone who has a stake in trustworthy elections — not only campaigns, government officials, and voters, but also private companies as well. To borrow a meme, the best time to work together on securing the vote was 2010, the second-best time is right now.
Why Companies Need to Help Ensure Election Integrity
Decisions about how and when to use technology are made at every step of the electoral process — by voters, by campaigns, and by election administrators. Each of these decision points bring with it significant risks of failure, so each needs to be backed by a trustworthy process that is resilient in the face of both attacks by external actors and mistakes by its administrators. Business can help by sharing their most helpful insights from their own digital transformations. If civic responsibility isn’t enough of a reason, economic incentives also demand that companies act as proactive democratic citizens. Democracy is good for economic growth, and supporting elections, in a non-partisan way (like encouraging people to vote, or securing polling stations), also can help a company’s bottom line — “being pro-democracy and pro-voter” has been shown to be good for companies.