Christopher Caldwell has an article at Compact today that says, in part:
One novelty revealed by the Dominion lawsuit has thus far been little appreciated: namely, that the overlap between public and private power has made criticism of the government vulnerable to counterattack. In the old days, a theory about polling stations might have been accurate or crazy—but polling was a government function and, thus, fair game. Now, an increasing number of government duties are contracted out to private companies that can demand compensation for any reputational damage that might affect their private interests (even if, as is the case with Dominion, their contracts are largely with the government).
Caldwell presents this fact as though it is a new development, but it is not.
Elections in the United States are administered by the states. That has been part of our constitutional order since the Founding. It would be rather silly and redundant for each state to manufacture its own voting machines, so they purchase them from the private sector.
Mechanical-lever voting machines were invented in the 1890s. The Automatic Voting Machine Corporation and the Shoup Voting Machine Corporation basically held a nationwide duopoly on them in the early 1900s. IBM marketed punch-card voting machines after it purchased the company Harris Votomatic in 1965. Mark-sense voting machines that scan ballots to tabulate results have been produced by a variety of companies over the past 60 years.
Federal law sets standards that voting machines must meet before states are permitted to purchase them. There are currently eleven registered voting-system manufacturers with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Elections are indeed a government function. Government regularly executes its functions with technology it did not itself produce. Government employees use computers made by Dell or Apple. Mailmen drive trucks made by Grumman or Ford. Soldiers carry guns made by Colt or Beretta. There’s nothing novel about that.