“The Cybersecurity 202: L.A. County voting system pits cybersecurity vs. disability advocates”

WaPo:

A new voting system in Los Angeles County is about to super-charge a debate about the balance between the cybersecurity of election systems and accessibility for people with disabilities.


The L.A. system, which was custom-built over roughly a decade for $250 million, is a ballot-marking device (BMD), which means a machine marks the votes rather than the voter marking them directly. That makes it far more accessible for people with disabilities but also worries some cybersecurity hawks who say voters are unlikely to verify everything is entered correctly on those computer-marked ballots – leaving room for a hacker to change votes and maybe alter the outcome of a tight race, as I reported yesterday.


They also argue that the danger of hacking simply grows greater when more technology is involved in any process, so the technology required to vote should be limited as much as possible.  

Those hawks generally acknowledge BMDs are necessary for people with disabilities but say everyone else should use hand-marked paper ballots.

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