U.S. election integrity has to be guarded at every step, from voter registration to verifying results.

In this interest area we decided to put our resources into ensuring that all votes are recorded and counted accurately. Throughout 2008, Quixote Foundation will support the Election Verification Network (EVN) and some of its member organizations. We're not accepting Letters of Inquiry in this area at any time during the year.

Basically, EVN wants people to vote, wants those votes to count and wants to check the results. Sounds simple, but electronic voting systems muddy the process beyond belief. Many of these machines are unreliable, easy to hack and don't give voters any way of checking that their votes were recorded properly. So EVN is working hard--and making huge progress--to see that all voting systems adopted in the U.S. include a voter-verifiable paper trail.

Overall, our goals in this area are:

  • people in the U.S. are free and encouraged to exercise their votes under equitable laws

  • election administration is nondiscriminatory, nonpartisan and parallel from state to state

  • vote counts are accurate and verifiable