Oklahoma's current voting machines are not going to last forever. They will need replacing

For almost four decades, Oklahoma has had a national reputation as a leader in holding free and fair elections ― safe from voter fraud and with every ballot counted accurately and securely.

It wasn’t always that way. In the early 1990s, we moved from an archaic system where different counties used different systems to count votes “by hand,” to a unified system under which the Oklahoma State Election Board maintains our hardware and software. Training is rigorous and uniform across all 77 counties. In 2012, we used funds from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), to purchase new electronic voting devices, again deployed in all 77 counties, to ensure that every paper ballot is hand-marked by voters and then counted by an accurate electronic tabulator. That system — funded in part by federal dollars but wholly implemented and operated by the state and the counties of Oklahoma — has served our residents well.

That’s the good news. The bad news is our current voting machines are not going to last forever, and we need to start thinking about their replacements. In addition, improvements in security and efficiency of voter registration databases need to be incorporated as they become available. Unfortunately, that need is emerging just as Congress appears to be waning in its commitment to supporting state election infrastructure. For reference, Congress routinely appropriated about $400 million annually through HAVA as late as 2020. That dipped to just $75 million in 2022 and 2023 ― and dropped even further to $55 million in 2024.

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This decline in support is detrimental for states like Oklahoma that are striving to further modernize election systems. And the global context is flat-out scary: This dip in funding is occurring in a world where cyberattacks are more frequent, the threat of interference from bad actors abroad continues to grow, and our enemies are attempting to undermine the integrity of our democratic process. This is not the time to cut corners when it comes to election infrastructure and security.

In this environment, it should come as no surprise that there is broad bipartisan agreement on the need to improve our election infrastructure, as polling shows eight in 10 voters support more investment. My hope is that our federal lawmakers translate this consensus into tangible legislative results.

Having experienced firsthand the benefits that sufficient funding for election infrastructure can bring to our local communities, I encourage Oklahomans to join me in calling on Congress to restore federal election infrastructure funding to $400 million in fiscal year 2025. Failure to reverse this recent downturn in federal investment is a disservice to our voters, our election workers and our democracy.

Michael Clingman served as Oklahoma State Election Board secretary from 2001 to 2008.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Restoring federal funding will help Oklahoma replace voting machines