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Will Foreign Hackers Attack Voter Registration Rolls in Virginia?

Marcie Casas / Creative Commons

A potential hack is a growing concern amongst lawmakers in Washington.

Foreign hackers have already tried to infiltrate voter registration rolls in Arizona and Illinois. Could Virginia be the next target? Democratic Congressman Don Beyer of Alexandria says rigging an election would be very difficult because of how elections work in America.  

“All these systems are so decentralized not connected to the Internet sort of one machine at a time that there’s very little opportunity for cheating."

So far none of the voter data has been manipulated by hackers, at least not yet. But what if the voter rolls suddenly disappeared and everyone had to vote with a provisional ballot? Republican Congressman Rob Wittman of Westmoreland County says many systems would be vulnerable. 

  

“Anything out there today that’s part of the communications network or that’s digital, yes, has the ability for it to be hacked."

One concern raised during a congressional hearing on this issue this week was the possibility of selectively manipulating some parts of voter data but not others. Targeting the battleground states for example, could create havoc for election officials.

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