Election Fact Check: How Voting Machines Work and Why They’re Hard to Hack

As Americans head to the polls, this Election DayConfidence that their votes are being counted accurately and that the democratic process is safe from interference is crucial, experts say.

But with voting already in full swing and just days before the remainder of the 2024 presidential election ballots are cast, baseless conspiracy theories about the security of voting machines are looming over the battle for the White House.

In the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump created some distrust in the voting system, which was alleged by some fellow Republicans, supporters and media outlets.

Despite debunking voting machine conspiracy theories such as internet hacking and widespread physical tampering, disinformation about the democratic process is pervasive on social media and fodder for some of the recent lawsuits filed by RNC-aligned groups in key swing states.

Elon Musk — a major Trump backer and the owner of is too much. Easy to hack,” said Musk.

However, multiple reviews of 2020 voter fraud claims and a landmark defamation lawsuit between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News found that the conspiracy theories to rig votes, and Trump’s claim that he won the election over President Joe Biden, were baseless .

In April 2023, Dominion reached a nearly $800 million settlement with Fox for spreading the false theories on the conservative news outlets’ platforms.

In addition, state and federal courts in six states have dismissed more than 60 lawsuits against Trump and his allies seeking to overturn the 2020 election results.

“These claims were not credible,” Lauren Cristella, president of the Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization in Philadelphia, told ABC News.

“I am confident that our elections are free, fair and secure, and that the systems we have and the checks and balances we have are working,” Cristella added.

How do voting machines work? And what security measures are in place, from the federal level to the community level, to ensure that every vote is counted and free from interference?

Before Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris battle it out for the U.S. vote on Nov. 5, experts said understanding the security measures that follow voting from the polls to the count can bring clarity and comfort to the process.

Which voting machines are used in the elections?

While election officials use technology to register voters, count and, in some cases, cast votes, the system is largely centered around paper ballots.

“In almost all places in the country, when they cast their ballots, about 98% of voters will have a paper record of their vote,” said Derek Tisler, who serves as election and government counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. program, told ABC News.

Historically, five types of voting machines have been used in the U.S.: hand-counted paper, mechanical lever machines, punched card machines, scanned paper ballots and electronic direct recording devices, according to the MIT Election Lab.

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In the 2024 election, paper ballot systems with optical scanning will be widely used to count physical ballots, which MIT says can be likened to the technology used to score a standardized test.

Voters mark their ballot in a private voting booth and then it is scanned as it is deposited in the ballot box, with votes being counted at the end of the day.

Electronic instant recording systems use buttons or a touch screen to record votes, often with a paper ballot for audits or a recount.

And voting devices and systems, which are entirely electronic, are primarily used to accommodate voters with disabilities.

There are 10 different voting system manufacturers that have been tested and approved by the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC), including Clear Ballot, Dominion Voting Systems, and Election Systems & Software (ES&S), to name just a few.

The path to approval includes equipment stress testing and software bug checks to ensure the machines have the basic functionality, accessibility and security capabilities required of these systems, the EAC said.

“So every voting system, including ours, goes through a certification process in accredited testing labs,” Chip Trowbridge, Clear Ballot’s chief technology officer, told ABC News.

“Every change, no matter how big or how small, whether it’s a source code or a software change, needs to be reviewed,” Trowbridge said.

Individual states and local jurisdictions also have certification processes for voting machine manufacturers that vary depending on location, according to Trowbridge.

What security measures are being taken to protect voting machines?

One of the first lines of defense against tampering is the physical security of voting machines, according to Ted Allen, professor of integrated systems engineers at Ohio State University and member of the MIT Election Lab.

Leading up to Election Day and after votes are cast, the machines are stored in secure locations where access is limited to election officials, Allen told ABC News.

At polling stations, voting machines are constantly monitored, with election officials and security personnel trained to ensure no unauthorized access is possible, Allen said.

“The paper, the chain of custody of the equipment and the chain of custody of the ballots are all generally very carefully studied and controlled,” Allen said.

However, in the 2020 elections, some individuals were accused of tampering with voting machines.

Tina Peters, a Republican election official in Colorado, was sentenced to nine years in prison for leading a security breach of the county’s election system after being inspired by false and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

She was convicted of giving an individual access to the election software she used for her province. Screenshots of the software appeared on right-wing websites.

In Georgia, bail bondsman Scott Hall was charged in connection with the alleged violation of voting machine equipment in the aftermath of the 2020 election in Coffee County.

Hall and several of his co-defendants are alleged to have “engaged in a conspiracy to intentionally interfere with the 2020 election results” and “unlawfully” access voting machines to obtain data, including images of ballots.

Hall pleaded guilty to five felony counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of electoral duties. He will be on probation and has agreed to testify in the future, including at the trial of other co-defendants.

While no system is ever completely immune to threats, voting machines are protected by a range of technical and procedural measures that make them extremely difficult to hack.

A spokesperson for Election Systems & Software, Inc. told ABC News that, aside from physical checks, the company’s voting equipment adheres to secure practices for creating, transferring and storing important election files and data.

By using encryption and digital data signing, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) compliant cryptographic modules and creating encrypted USB flash drives programmed for that specific election all prevent tampering by unauthorized agents , said ES&S.

Are voting machines connected to the internet?

An important safeguard to make voting machines difficult to hack is the lack of internet access during the voting process.

The machines used to scan ballots at a polling station may not have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, radio or network connectivity at all, according to Trowbridge.

“These systems absolutely cannot be networked,” Trowbridge said. “If you look at Clear Ballot’s machines, the only wire coming out is a power cord.”

Central scanning equipment is networked, according to Trowbridge, but the technology is on an air-gapped network that is completely separate from the public internet.

This significantly reduces the risk of remote hacking or unauthorized access from external sources, he said.

Even if a hacker tries to gain access to a voting machine, he or she must physically tamper with the machine itself, which can be more challenging due to the physical security measures involved.

Looking at November 5, Derek Tisler emphasized that there are always checks and balances available in the process to ensure that there is no one who could disrupt anything.

“Public trust is so essential to the democratic process, which is why elections are transparent,” Tisler said.