America is inarguably the most technologically advanced country in the world. However, its voting system is vulnerable to mechanical breakdown and manipulation by hostile actors.Electronic manipulation has never been detected, and it is not easy, but it is not impossible.
Voting machines used in the U.S. elections are as old as 20 years in many States and the chances of breakdowns and slowing down of the voting process are extremely high this year, an expert on electronic voting machines told The Hindu .
Barbara Simons is a computer scientist and co-author of Broken Ballots , a book on the vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems. “In 2012 itself, delays in voting process due to technical failures were reported from many centres. Those machines are four years older now, as no massive replacement has been done. This year it will be worse,” she said by phone from San Francisco, California.
The American voting mechanism is not uniform across the country. Some States use paper ballots that are scanned on a machine, while five States use “direct recording electronic” (DRE) machines exclusively, without a paper trail. In many States, it is a combination of paper and machines, with different types of provisions to ensure the integrity of the voting process. In some States, a random audit is done to check whether the machine has recorded the vote correctly; in some others, a close result automatically triggers a manual counting of the paper ballot. In States where there is no paper ballot at all, the credibility of the system is the weakest, points out Ms. Simons.
Voter data breachHowever, more vulnerable are the voter databases, she points out. Russian hackers had broken into the Democratic National Committee’s computer network earlier this year and also into the voter databases of Illinois and Arizona. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s purported support for Republican candidate Donald Trump has been a talking point for Democrats. Mr. Trump’s public statement – which he later said was a joke – calling on Russians to hack and release about 33000 e-mails of Hillary Clinton that she has destroyed, also created uproar.
“U.S. voter database records the political affiliation of the voters — Republicans, Democrats or independents. If the database can be breached and a particular category of voters are prevented from voting, it can impact the outcome. Given the system of electoral college votes, manipulating a modest number of votes in key swing States can have a decisive impact on the national result,” she said.
However, Republicans and their candidate Donald Trump are more worried about voter frauds — which is rarely reported. At least 15 States will have new voting restrictions in place this year, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. This is after courts struck down or rolled back restrictions in at least five States. These restrictions, in the form of stricter ID requirements and a cutting down of early voting windows, disproportionally affect black voters and other minority communities. It is estimated that 20 million American citizens lack a government-issued photo ID.
