An article in the Sept. 11 Perspective section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette headlined "Ballot-box hacking: The threat is real" is inaccurate and indicates a lack of subject matter knowledge. I've served as the Jefferson County Arkansas Republican Committee election commissioner since 2003 and as the Republican Designee on the state Board of Election Commissioners since 2012 and was recently appointed to another four-year term. As an election systems and software contractor in 2006, I trained over 3,000 election officials in about 10 states on electronic voting and tabulation equipment.
Additionally, I served seven missions as a short-term election observer in former Soviet republics in West Asia and other countries in Eastern Europe as a member of the American contingent seconded to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, so I know a bit about elections and voting equipment. I am also a retired U.S. Army chief warrant officer and retired U.S. Army civilian at the director level.
The article's contention about the final vote count being altered by hacking is incorrect in many ways. To begin with, voter registration systems are just that, a record of registered voters. It has nothing to do with ballots cast or tabulated. Those systems are online, which made them vulnerable to being hacked. However, electronic voting equipment (ballot markers/printers and tabulating devices) in Arkansas and other states using the same voting equipment are not Internet accessible and cannot be hacked.
All aspects of the ballot programming process and voting machine preparation are accomplished without Internet access. Ballot information is entered into an online portal; however, once the election is programmed and loaded onto voting machines, no aspect is accessible to an Internet hacker until unofficial results are announced.
In the unlikely event a hacker is able to intercede transmission of unofficial results from a county election commission to the secretary of state, there is a paper trail at each county election commission for recounts (if necessary) on both the iVotronic and newer EasyVote systems.
Another factor is that there is more of a potential for election fraud using paper ballots than with electronic voting equipment. Even if paper ballots were used, they would still have to be tabulated electronically. In our county, hand-counting 12,000 ballots would take several days, and there would be error, particularly on a long general election ballot with constitutional questions and other issues on the ballot.
The procedure in Arkansas requires manual audit of a tabulator's printed results against its electronic results. Then we have those pesky individuals called poll watchers. There are other points, but you get the message.
Please stop fear-mongering; all it does is diminish voter turnout.
Stuart D. Soffer, CMCE, Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army (retired), lives in White Hall.
MovieStyle on 09/18/2016