Election officials across the country are spending millions of dollars to replace their insecure voting machines ahead of the 2020 electionBut America's patchwork voting system is a long way from being secure. To understand why, take a look at Texas.
that would require paper ballots and provide $775 million to help state and local governments make the transition.
But as experts warned at the time, paperless voting represents a severe cybersecurity risk. That’s because they do not produce independent paper records of voters’ decisions, making it impossible to reliably audit them to rule out malfunctions or hacking.report All 14 of these counties reported buying the Verity Touch device made by Hart InterCivic, one of the three largest voting technology firms. Most reported doing so in 2017 and 2018, when the dangers of paperless machines were well known.
This dynamic highlights the need for better cybersecurity education for election officials, multiple experts said. Congress gave Texas $23.3 million in election security grants last year as part of a nationwide program, but that sum was tiny compared with the state’s needs. Replacing machines just in Texas’ three largest counties, a state spokesman said at the time, would cost between $40 million and $50 million.