voting machines

Heading into midterm elections, pressure is on for governments and campaigns to secure elections. But what about the companies that make the machines and print the ballots?

A judge said such a paper ballot rollout would "seriously test" the capacity of election workers and "swamp the polls with work and voters," leading to "disaffection and frustration."

Less than two months ahead of Election Day, a group of voters and election security advocates say the state's touchscreen voting machines are insecure and should be replaced with paper ballots.

States across the country are in the process of money from the federal government for election security. But local officials worry the money isn't enough to make systems safer for the next election.

Most electronic voting machines don't create a paper trail but voting officials in Austin are trying to marry the convenience of electronic machines with a paper trail that can be audited.

One of the most drastic steps was a decision to adopt all new paper-backed voting machines before November after deciding that the paperless electronic equipment was vulnerable to attack.

Security experts estimate it would cost roughly $400 million to replace voting machines and add paper audits. It's about the same amount the Pentagon spent on military bands last year.

"Even though NSA says it's likely that we opened them, we did not," VR Systems COO Ben Martin says of emails that came into the company's system.

Even if most voting machines aren't connected to the Internet, "they are connected to something that's connected to something that's connected to the Internet," says one cybersecurity expert.