Hacking concerns spur recount calls
U.S. ELECTION: Experts raise suspicions votes tampered with in swing states
As the U.S. election wore down, Donald Trump repeatedly warned the process could be “rigged,” refusing to even say if he would accept results that didn’t favour him.
Two weeks after Trump’s stunning win, the spectre of a fixed vote is emerging again, but this time academics and election-rights advocates are suggesting the Republican might have benefited.
And they’re raising the possibility a foreign nation — namely, Russia — may have distorted the free vote.
A number of experts with suspicions are pushing for recounts in certain swing states Trump captured — counter to a string of pre-election polls — or at least audits of randomly selected votes.
The wholesale shift to electronic balloting after the 2000 Florida recount left the systems open to outside, malicious tampering, elections-systems specialists warn.
There is evidence of Russian hackers trying to interfere in the election less directly — and directly — in a recent Ukrainian vote.
Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer scientist and leading expert on computerized voting, reportedly spoke to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and urged in a blog post Wednesday that candidates request recounts.
“America’s voting machines have serious cyber-security problems,” he said. “It’s been documented beyond any doubt over the last decade … Recounting the ballots now can only lead to strengthened electoral integrity, but the window for candidates to act is closing fast.”
The deadlines for requesting recounts are in the next few days.
There’s no word from the Clinton camp about whether it will take action while New York magazine reports that the Obama White House, anxious for a smooth transition, is discouraging the idea.