Trump falsely alleges voting machines are "vulnerable" and "easily compromised"

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In a primetime code Thursday, President Trump alleged voting machines and ballot-counting systems are "extremely exposed to attack," pointing to quality that was declassified and released by the White House — pursuing years of akin claims astir voting machines.

But immoderate of the recently released documents are tied to a institution that mostly isn't utilized successful the United States, and experts accidental voting machines are taxable to aggravated controls.

"They're susceptible and they're easy compromised, and radical wrong our authorities knew that," the president said during the speech.

Mr. Trump aboriginal pointed to CIA quality astir a crippled to usage voting machines to "do a large fig successful favour of the corrupt Maduro authorities successful Venezuela," referring to elector fraud successful that country.

However, the Venezuela-related quality released by the White House focuses connected predetermination systems made by the institution Smartmatic — and that company's exertion is not utilized successful the United States, speech from successful Los Angeles County.

Smartmatic has said it does not presently person immoderate operations successful Venezuela. While it worked successful the state for astir 13 years starting successful 2004, it has said that successful 2017, "our exertion helped beryllium that the authorities was reporting mendacious turnout numbers, truthful we blew the whistle connected them and stopped doing concern determination astatine that time."

In general, experts accidental voting machines successful the U.S. are highly hard to compromise due to the fact that they are intimately monitored, they aren't connected to the internet, and in astir each state, they are backed up by insubstantial ballots oregon receipts that tin beryllium audited to cheque the results by hand.

"They're nether fastener and cardinal until they are publically tested to marque definite they haven't been tampered with," said Center for Election Innovation & Research Executive Director David Becker. "And past they are utilized and we inactive don't spot them. We person those insubstantial ballots."

For example, each 2020 wide predetermination ballot successful Georgia was tallied 3 times: erstwhile by machines during the archetypal counting process, erstwhile successful an audit that progressive a manus recount successful each region statewide, and erstwhile successful a instrumentality recount requested by the Trump campaign. All 3 counts affirmed that erstwhile President Joe Biden defeated Mr. Trump.

Elsewhere successful Thursday's speech, Mr. Trump pointed to recently declassified quality that U.S. adversaries similar Russia, China, Iran and North Korea person the quality to compromise U.S. predetermination infrastructure.

The papers that Mr. Trump appeared to notation — a National Intelligence Council memo from January 2020 — does authorities that U.S. adversaries person the "capability" to compromise predetermination infrastructure. It points to elector registration databases arsenic 1 imaginable vulnerability. But it aboriginal explains that systems utilized to tabulate votes oregon show results would beryllium "difficult to manipulate connected a wide capable standard to compromise predetermination results."

"The systems successful each voting determination are not connected to the Internet oregon to each other, and galore methods for exploiting them trust connected carnal proximity," the papers said, adding that "conducting specified a run would beryllium hard and that postelection audits and insubstantial trails precise apt would uncover specified an effort."

The National Intelligence Council also found successful a long-public March 2021 appraisal that nary overseas entities attempted to "alter immoderate method facet of the voting process" successful 2020.

"We measure that it would beryllium hard for a overseas histrion to manipulate predetermination processes astatine standard without detection by quality postulation connected the actors themselves, done carnal and cyber information monitoring astir voting systems crossed the country, oregon successful post-election audits," the quality assemblage said successful the March 2021 report.

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