Providence Journal: Vendor that supplied voting machines to R.I. says they cannot be manipulated remotely

Providence Journal: Vendor that supplied voting machines to R.I. says they cannot be manipulated remotely

"The presence of these modems in the tabulator means that they are connected to the internet, and therefore present a tangible risk to the integrity of our voting system. The presence of these modems in the absence of a well-defined strategy for mitigating the risk they present, undermines confidence in the voting system,″ said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — How vulnerable to hackers are Rhode Island’s voting machines? …

John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, drew attention to the issue with a tweet that said: “Top voting vendor ES&S admits that it *does* sometimes sell voting machine management software with remote access capabilities,″ contradicting what the company told The New York Times earlier this year. He cited the Motherboard report. …

After monitoring this back-and-forth, Marion on Tuesday said: “Common Cause understands that reporting in The New York Times and Motherboard about ES&S does not relate to Rhode Island’s current voting system. However, the reporting is about the same vendor that Rhode Island purchased our current voting system from, and who is under contract to maintain and manage that system.

“It is because ES&S is our vendor that Common Cause is concerned that they were caught misleading a reporter with respect to their past security practices.” …

Marion said Common Cause has an unrelated concern: “Rhode Island’s current voting system is not federally certified because of the presence of wireless modems in the precinct tabulators that are used to transmit unofficial election results.”

He said Common Cause sent a letter to the Board of Elections in May asking “what steps they are taking to mitigate the risk created by the presence of those modems and we have yet to receive a reply.”

“As recent articles in the New York Times explain, the presence of these modems in the tabulator means that they are connected to the internet, and therefore present a tangible risk to the integrity of our voting system. The presence of these modems in the absence of a well-defined strategy for mitigating the risk they present, undermines confidence in the voting system,″ Marion wrote in May.

“We understand that the Board staff has concerns that removing the wireless modems will delay election night reporting of unofficial results,″ he wrote, but other states — including Maryland — have done so “without encountering a significant delay in reporting election night results. … We urge you to reach out to peers in other states who use the same equipment without the wireless modems.”

“And just to be clear, ″ Marion said. “I don’t think either the Secretary of State or the Board of Elections is misleading anyone. The Secretary of State is clearly going to great lengths to get the portions of election administration that are under her control ready for the new threats that we see emerging in the last two years.”

“But we feel the modems are an outstanding issue that they have not addressed yet to our satisfaction,″ he said.