The State Elections Board of Virginia, on Friday the 8th of September, approved a plan to replace the direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines used now in the state due to concerns about hacking in future elections. Additionally, the direct-recording electronic voting equipment in use in Virginia does not have a voter-verifiable paper audit trail, which is an important security feature provided by the paper systems, the statement added. As of today, the following 22 Virginia localities use DREs: Bath, Buchanan, Chesapeake, Colonial Heights, Culpeper, Cumberland, Emporia, Falls Church, Gloucester, Hopewell, Lee, Madison, Martinsville, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Rappahannock, Russell, Surry, Sussex, Tazewell, and Washington. Most states will not hold a major election until November 2018, but Virginia will elect a new governor and other statewide officials this November.
Friday’s action will force the remaining jurisdictions – which together serve 140 of the state’s 2,439 voting precincts, or about 190,000 of the state’s 5 million active voters – to replace theirs before the November 7 election.
… “Virginia’s move to decertify all of its paperless voting machines is a critical step toward securing its elections and acknowledging that post-2016, we’re living in a courageous new world where election interference from hostile foreign attackers is no longer theoretical”, Barbara Simons, the president of the election security nonprofit Verified Voting, said in a statement. “Multiple types of DREs, some of which are now in use in Virginia, were hacked according to public reports from DefCon”. Newburgh Gazette http://newburghgazette.com/2017/09/11/virginia-is-getting-rid-of-its-vulnerable-voting-machines/
Full Article: Virginia Is Getting Rid Of Its Vulnerable Voting Machines.