[S]ecretary of State Jim Condos issued reassurances Tuesday about the integrity of the state’s elections system, saying safeguards are in place to protect against someone changing the results either at the polls or in the statewide collection of the numbers.
Residents have until 5 p.m. Wednesday to register to vote for the Nov. 8 election. Condos recommended would-be voters register in person with their town clerk or online to make sure they meet the deadline. Town clerks are required to be open Wednesday between 3 and 5 p.m.
“We are in really good shape,” Condos told reporters. “We feel strong, we feel confident. That’s not to say we can’t be hacked. You can always be hacked, and the question is have you been proactive and taken every step available to prevent that from happening.”
The stepped-up reviews in Vermont and across the country occurred after national reports in August, including claims by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, raised questions about the integrity of the nation’s voting system, Condos said.
The state’s chief elections officials stressed that none of the equipment used to count the votes at the local level was connected to the internet, and therefore couldn’t be hacked. Results collected farther up the chain, including tabulations at the state level, are protected by a series of firewalls. Condos also said every vote in Vermont has a paper document behind it, unlike in jurisdictions that used, for example, touch-screen technology with no paper trail.
“I don’t want to say it can’t be hacked because I don’t know that for a fact. I will say that we are confident that we have taken the proactive steps to protect Vermont’s election integrity, that we have taken every step we can to contain that issue so that it doesn’t become a problem,” Condos said.
“You know if I were to say never, and then it gets hacked, that looks pretty dumb,” Condos said, adding the system at the secretary of state’s level is being monitored daily.
Deputy Secretary of State Chris Winters noted the hacking that has occurred elsewhere has involved tampering with voter checklists, not election results.
“The election results are so decentralized that it would take a massive-scale conspiracy to change election results,” Winters said.
Condos dismissed voter fraud at the polls, including attempts by people to vote twice, as a nonissue and said there were checks to prevent that.
“It’s hard enough to get people to vote once,” he said.
The secretary of state, who is expected to win re-election easily, said he would push the Legislature next year to declare Election Day a state holiday or at least require employers to give voters time off to vote. Mary Alice Herbert of the Liberty Union Party is the only candidate running against Condos, a Democrat.
Turnout is expected to be strong Nov. 8. A record number of residents are registered to vote: 465,483 as of Tuesday, with the number growing by 500 to 700 people a day, according to the secretary of state. In 2012 about 462,000 people were registered, and approximately 454,000 in 2008.
Absentee ballots are coming in strong, Condos said. About 72,000 have been requested so far, with 51,000 returned. The record was 94,000 absentee ballots requested in 2008.
