• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, December 15, 2016

American voters in 2016 were told repeatedly throughout the election cycle that voting machines are unhackable. It was discovered during the Wisconsin recount that those assurances may have been misguided.

Security investigators from RecountNow.org found the latest Election Systems and Software (ES&S) DS200 optical scanners, the machines that scan and count ballots, have cellular capabilities and are therefore not as secure as once thought.

“Cellular connectivity at the precinct level is bad,” stated Jim March-Simpson, one of the IT specialists that uncovered the vulnerability. “The precinct-level scanners can open an Internet channel to the central vote tabulator.”

“That is the big disaster,” added March-Simpson, “and cannot be tolerated in a U.S. election.”

There is no evidence that votes were actually changed in this case, or that all DS200s have this vulnerability. Only 25 states use the new model, and it is unclear whether other older models have similar capabilities.

Another cause for concern is that FBI director James Comey told Congress, before November 8, that voting machines are virtually impossible to hack, due to their lack of Internet connectivity. This means that either the FBI was unaware of the implications of the cellular capabilities or no government agency had actually undertaken a full audit of the new voting machines.

"If the central vote tabulator does not have the best possible security, then even a good hacker with a normal PC can get in," March-Simpson stated.

As a precaution, back at the end of October, 46 states had asked the DHS for help securing their voting machines. To date, no one has claimed our votes were tampered with, but the confusion surrounding the security of our voting machines raises key questions about federal procedure and cyber security.

Just yesterday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest was bombarded with questions about why the federal government took so long to announce the perpetrators of the DNC hacks. Whether they waited for political reasons or others, the reporters inferred that the delay shined a negative light on our country’s forensic capabilities in cyberspace.

The White House and government agencies constantly reiterate we have the most powerful and far-reaching cyber capabilities worldwide. While that may be true, it does not always feel like it.