Space X CEO Elon Musk has made a big claim regarding Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). Elon Musk took to the social media platform X (formally known as Twitter) calling to eliminate EVMs from the election procedure. He claimed that the EVMs can be hacked by AI or humans, and while chances of it happening are still low, they are still too high to not be worrying.
Elon Musk made this claim while re-tweeting US Presidential Candidate, Robert F. Kennedy’s tweet which said that the Puerto Rican elections experienced voting irregularities due to EVMs, as reported by the Associated Press. However, the problems were identified and corrected as there was a paper trail from the traditional paper ballots.
Kennedy raised a question about the legitimacy of the elections where voting will primarily be through EVMs, and therefore a lack of paper trail could result in unfair elections. “What happens in jurisdictions where there is no paper trail? US citizens need to know that every one of their votes were counted, and that their elections cannot be hacked. We need to return to paper ballots to avoid electronic interference with elections…” Kennedy’s tweet went on to say.
What happened in Puerto Rico elections?
Puerto Rico held primary elections to select gubernatorial candidates for the pro-statehood New Progressive Party and the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the island’s territorial status on June 2. Both of the competing parties in the elections reported hundreds of ballots showing inaccurate results, with the New Progressive Party (PNP) reporting over 700 errors and the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) pointing to some 350 discrepancies. The problem was reportedly caused by a software issue that caused machines supplied by an American EVM company to incorrectly calculate vote totals. In order to fix the discrepancies, the election commission conducted a full vote tally and audited paper receipts from hundreds of ballot-counting machines. Following the incident the Puerto Rican Election Commission also reviewed the contract with the American EVM company, Dominion Voting Systems, which expires on June 30.