In one state, workers rubber-stamped computer printouts without examining them. There are no standards for election software, so anyone can write a vote-counting program. Vendors often talk state legislators into writing enabling legislation which is vague and favors their company. When a state Board of Elections certifies a computer system, the board often fails to consult any computer experts, and when it does consult experts, it may ignore their advice. The state of Pennsylvania certified a computerized election system despite strong objections from two CMU professors.
Vendors consider their software to be proprietary.
As a result, in the last 20 years, almost nobody has examined any of the software. Compare this to accounting software, which is subjected to audit by third parties. It is hard to have confidence that software is performing accurately when you cannot look at the code. Waskell said that states and municipalities have ignored four clear warnings against adopting these systems. Nevertheless, none of the programs has been audited.