The Office of Inspector General (OIG) serves as the internal watchdog for all federal departments and agencies. The 74 inspectors general are broadly responsible for preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement in their domains, and promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in operations and programs. The Department of Health and Human Services OIG, for instance, employs more than 1,600 public servants to...

Administering elections falls on the shoulders of state and territorial governments. It is not surprising, then, that there are so many different approaches, technologies, and processes in place to handle election infrastructure. The problems that befall election infrastructure are many, varied, and often well publicized. In Maricopa County, Ariz., ballots were too lightly printed to be read by scanners during the 2022 midterms. Multnomah Coun...

States’ voter registration systems and voter access have undergone a host of changes over the past five years, thanks in large part to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many states expanded vote-by-mail options, stepped up automatic voter registration programs, or both. Cities took action, as well – Los Angeles, for instance, has overhauled its voting system infrastructure, using open source, the cloud, and cybersecurity partnerships to updat...