[caption id=”attachment_104847″ align=”aligncenter” width=”3000″] (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
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Virginia’s board of elections has decertified about 3,000 voting machines because of security problems.
The state finally decommissioned the machines after a decade of complaints and concerns raised by security experts had been ignored, Wired reported. Computer Scientist Jeremy Epstein said the voting machines weren’t hacked previously “only because no one tried.”
Wired points to deep flaws in “the federal testing and certification process” for voting machines to explain how some problems originated.
Mississippi and Pennsylvania used similar machines, but replaced them in 2013 and 2007, respectively.
Alignment issues with touch screens, incorrect candidates displayed on the ballot, and other issues were reported during the 2014 midterm elections.
In Virginia, the touchscreen machines manufactured by Advanced Voting Solutions were used in 20 percent of voting precincts. While problems with the machines were widespread enough to prompt the change, no evidence of voter fraud or manipulation was present in previous elections.
