No hacking in Ohio election

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Election hackers won’t go unnoticed, according to the Fayette County Board of Elections.

At a recent meeting the board discussed Ohio’s voting systems.

“They say people can hack elections—but we have to submit a physical copy of the reports to the Secretary of State,” said Beth Ann Snyder, director of the board of elections in Fayette County.

Snyder said the board of elections uploads the vote results onto a computer specifically designed for communicating with the Secretary of State’s office and also sends the physical reports to the Secretary of State.

She said those physical copies will be compared to what is received from the computer. If there is a discrepancy between what was submitted on the computer and the physical results, “Boom, it would be noticed pretty quickly,” said Snyder.

She said all communication for the November general election will be done through a different computer than on the regularly used office computer. Although both computers use secured sites, Snyder said, it gives them another layer of security.

“It can’t be hacked. There’s no way Ohio systems can ever be hacked into,” said Snyder.

Ohio Secretary of State John Husted reportedly said that Ohio’s voting machines are safe and the office is working with cybersecurity experts and the U.S. military to test the systems, which Snyder said they have already begun.

“It’s not that big of a deal, it’s just another level of security,” said Snyder.

Security measures in place to ensure voting machines are safe

By Ashley Bunton

[email protected]

Reach Ashley on Twitter @ashbunton or at the Record-Herald (740) 313-0355

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