Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 27 december 2016

U.S. elections still vulnerable to rigging, disruption

MICHAEL RUBINKAM tests commissioned by
FRANK BAJAK New York, California, Ohio
Associated Press and other states.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Jill Stein and her witnesses said
Stein’s bid to recount votes worries about fraud were
in Pennsylvania was in trou- justified given U.S. charg-
ble even before a federal es that Russia meddled
judge shot it down Dec. 12. in the 2016 presidential
That’s because the Green campaign. Emails of top
Party candidate’s effort Democrats were hacked
stood little chance of de- and leaked. Over the sum-
tecting potential fraud or mer, hackers also tried to
error in the vote — there breach the voter registra-
was basically nothing to tion databases of Arizona
recount. and Illinois using Russia-
Pennsylvania is one of 11 based servers, U.S. officials
states where the majority said. Election networks
of voters use antiquated in at least 20 states were
machines that store votes probed for vulnerabilities.
electronically, without “It’s a target-rich environ-
printed ballots or other ment,” said Rice Univer-
paper-based backups sity computer scientist
that could be used to dou- In this Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016 photo, a computer screen shows the results from an electronic Dan Wallach. Researchers
ble-check the balloting. voting machine as Brian Varner, a principal researcher at Symantec, demonstrates how to hack would like to see the U.S.
There’s almost no way to an electronic voting machine at a Symantec office in New York. move entirely to comput-
know if they’ve accurately Associated Press er-scannable paper bal-
recorded individual votes lots, because paper can’t
— or if anyone tampered dangers to the security of tion, the paperless systems amond cited prominently be hacked.
with the count. the rickety, underfunded are nearing the end of their in his decision halting the The U.S. voting system — a
More than 80 percent of U.S. election system. Like useful life — yet there is no Pennsylvania recount . loosely regulated, locally
Pennsylvanians who voted many electronic voting comprehensive plan to re- Stein pursued similar re- managed patchwork of
Nov. 8 cast their ballots on machines, they are vulner- place them. counts in Wisconsin and more than 3,000 jurisdic-
such machines, accord- able to hacking. But other “If I were going to hack Michigan, to little avail. tions overseen by the
ing to VotePA, a nonprofit machines typically leave this election, I would go for Those states use more reli- states — employs more
seeking their replacement. a paper trail that could be the paperless machines able paper-based voting than two dozen types of
VotePA’s Marybeth Kuznik manually checked. The because they are so hard technologies. (The Elector- machinery from 15 manu-
described the proposed paperless digital machines to check,” said Barbara al College certified Donald facturers. Elections officials
recount this way: “You go open the door to potential Simons, the co-author of Trump’s presidential victory across the nation say they
to the computer and you election rigging that might “Broken Ballots,” a study of last week.) take great care to secure
say, ‘OK, computer, you not ever be detected. flawed U.S. voting technol- But a cadre of computer their machines from tam-
counted this a week-and- Their prevalence also mag- ogy. scientists from major uni- pering. They are locked
a-half ago. Were you right nifies other risks in the elec- Stein described her re- versities backed Stein’s re- away when not in use and
the first time?’” tion system, simply because count effort as a way to en- counts to underscore the sealed to prevent tamper-
These paperless digital error or fraud is harder to sure that the 2016 election vulnerability of U.S. elec- ing.
voting machines, used catch when vote counts wasn’t tainted by hacking tions. These researchers All of that makes nation-
by roughly 1 in 5 U.S. vot- can’t be verified. And like or fraud. There’s no evi- have successfully hacked al elections very difficult
ers last month, present other voting machines ad- dence of either so far — a e-voting machines for to steal without getting
one of the most glaring opted since the 2000 elec- fact federal judge Paul Di- more than a decade in caught.q