A letter addressed to officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission cites “grave concerns” over connecting voting machines to wireless networks. “The convenience of transmitting vote totals online does not outweigh the need of the American people to be assured their votes will be accurately transmitted and counted,” the letter reads. The South Carolina Election Commission’s website says touch screen voting machines are not accessible to wireless or wire-based computer systems. They aren’t connected to phone or network lines. “We often hear the assertion voting machines are not connected to the internet, and in many cases the voting machine you actually vote on in the polling location is not connected to the internet,” said Susan Greenhalgh, the policy director for the National Election Defense Coalition. “However, there are many states that the voting machine that is in the polling location is connected to the internet, perhaps temporarily with the use of these wireless modems.”
Greenhalgh helped coordinate the letter. It calls for the discontinued use of wireless technology.
“They have one month,” she said. “There’s a lot of states that already don’t use wireless. There are a lot of states that still do. To put in place new procedures to transmit the election results in another method is not that difficult.”
The letter is also signed by Dr. Duncan Buell, a professor in computer science and engineering and the University of South Carolina.
Full Article: Letter warns against connecting voting machines to networks.