Election security

Voting Machines: A National Security Vulnerability?

The inherent vulnerabilities in outdated technologies are exacerbated by the fundamentally insecure supply chain and chain of custody involved in creating voting machines, said Ramsay. If nefarious actors aim to attack US democracy, their more focused target is the voting machines themselves, she said. 

Voting machines are no more than hardware powered by software, said Ramsay, and susceptible to manipulation by any individual involved in their manufacture.  

While nation states have attempted to manipulate elections for years, according to Ramsay, criminals, terrorist groups, and other nefarious actors also have the technical capability and financial resources to execute such an attack on democratic processes. When it comes to the voting machines themselves, “the supply chain is a great infection vector for them to do that,” said Ramsay.