WASHINGTON — Area election officials sought to reassure residents on Monday that hackers could not alter the outcome of the upcoming election.
Some voters have been concerned about the integrity of the presidential election and whether votes could be tampered with, changing the outcome of the race. But elections officials downplayed those concerns, saying that scenario is highly unlikely.
“They should not worry at all,” said Linda Lamone, the state elections administrator in Maryland. “There’s over 30,000 local jurisdictions that run elections in the United States and the voting system is controlled by each of those local jurisdictions.”
Maryland has a section on its elections website dedicated to addressing rumors, and the first rumor currently debunked is “election systems are not secure.”
The site explains “voting equipment is never connected to the internet. The network used to generate official election results is never connected to the internet. Physical access to the network is restricted and limited to election officials — all of whom have had a security background check — and all network transactions are logged.”
Officials in D.C. have a similar message to residents concerned about election hackers.
“Voters should feel safe about the voting process,” said spokeswoman Tamara Robinson with the D.C. Board of Elections. “None of our voter registration systems, nor our election tabulation system — neither one of those is connected to the internet.”
Voting equipment is also not connected to the internet in D.C. and Virginia, making it difficult for hackers to access anything at all.
“There’s no way to get into it, so there’s no issue in Maryland, and in fact, no issue around the country,” said Lamone.
