Across the country, voter registration deadlines began this week. Texas has already seen an all-time high of registrations ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to register. That’s despite the fact that the state announced recently that thousands of voters who registered online through Vote.org may not have officially registered. This is because Texas does not offer online voter registration. So when all those potential voters show up to vote in November, how confident can they be that their vote will count? Short answer: Very. Long answer: While experts feel the voting process itself is secure, they have concerns about the protection of voter rights, accessibility of the vote and the risk for misinformation, particularly from foreign sources looking to sway election results, which they say has not been adequately addressed.
“Texas voters can vote with confidence that their vote is going to be counted the way they cast it,” said Keith Ingram, director of the Texas secretary of state’s elections division, at a recent panel discussion hosted by the Texas Tribune. “There are other ways that are easier for people to influence the outcome.”
In addition to a secure Election Day, Ingram said that since 2016 the state increased security for its voter registration system, adding two-step verification and monitoring traffic to the database, among other changes. “We have confidence that our voter registration system has not been breached,” he said.
Counties are still precautions, according to Dana DeBeauvoir, longtime Travis County clerk. Internet-connected databases are vulnerable to attack, she explained, even if it’s as simple as making the system inaccessible on Election Day with repeated attacks. “What we try to do at the county level is have backup system, after backup system to make sure voters get taken care of even if we lose connectivity,” said DeBeauvoir.
Full Article: With Various Threats, How Secure Is the 2018 Vote?.
