Working with the SOE (supervisor of elections) here I can calm your fears. As previously stated, a nation state, most likely the Russians, did breach several state’s voter registration databases aound the 2016 election. While problematic for a lot of reasons, doing so had no effect on the actual voting process.
The actual voting systems, which vary from state to state, are always “air gapped” in the sense that voting machines are never, ever connected to the Internet or any network of any kind. As described by others, ballots are typically printed out for each voter as they register or check in at a polling place, filled out by the voter, then scanned by a completely stand-alone voting machine. The votes tabulated in that machine are collected on a memory card or other means of electronic storage that is encrypted using state of the art encryption protocols. There is a clearly defined chain of custody involving the handling of the machines, memory cards, ballots and anything else involved in the process. When auditing the results, paper ballots marked by the voters are scanned by a machine and tabulated separately to compare with the results tabulated by the voting machines. It’s a very, very highly controlled process that has changed little over the years. Most states and municipalities continue to use a paper ballot of some sort in order to provide a hard copy of the votes - I’m not aware of anyone who does it 100% electronically, although there may be somewhere. The stories about massive numbers of votes being added/removed and such are bogus. The process simply doesn’t have the capacity for such alterations, and even if someone tried it, the audits done using the physical paper ballots would quickly reveal any discrepancies. Mistakes do happen, and they’re typically identified in short order when audits are performed and corrected on the spot. It’s still a very manual process everywhere I know of, and that’s one of the reasons why the integrity of the process has been preserved. -D > On Dec 17, 2020, at 2:09 AM, Scott Ritchey via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > My current NC county as well as my previous FL county used this system. > After marking a paper ballot the voter feeds it into a reader which indicates > that the ballot was accepted (read OK) or rejected (spit back out). Accepted > ballots are held within the machine. This is the best system I know: simple, > cheap, secure and auditable. Anything more complex facilitates fraud, IMO. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kaleb Striplin via Mercedes, Wednesday, December 16, 2020 11:33 PM > > Here in our state you get a paper ballot that you color in the squares to > vote. Then feed it into a machine that scans it and counts it. Even though a > machine counts it, you still have a physical paper that can be hand counted > later. Are other states totally electronic? > > Sent from my iPhone > > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
