Voting Machines Vulnerable

In Allentown, Pa., Jill Stein made the news because of her petition to count votes in the state. Unfortunately, a federal judge thwarted her plans on Dec. 12. As candidate of Green Party, Stein already had small chance of discovering fraud or errors in votes because there was really nothing to count in the first place.

Pennsylvania is one of the 11 states that still use antiquated machines during elections. These equipment were purchased online, and printed ballots or paper-based backups are not available for recounting the number of ballots. Thus, people in the state really have no means of checking whether all votes were accurately recorded or tampered with.

At least 80% of population of Pennsylvania exercised their right to vote last Nov. 8 using those antiquated machines. Meanwhile, a non-profit group, VotePA, is already taking action to have these equipment be replaced with new ones. The group aims to acquire voting machines that can perform rechecking functions.

The use of digital voting machines is one of the most prominent dangers brought by implementation of US election system at very low budgets. Approximately, 1 in 5 voters used such machines to cast their votes in recent elections.

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