Voter Protection: Be Involved
Make sure your vote counts!
Secretary of State
82 Smith St., Rm 217 • Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-2357
RI VOTING SCANNERS TRANSMIT RESULTS VIA INTERNET
Voting equipment connected to the Internet is vulnerable of being hacked
In July 2016, aging voting equipment from Rhode Island was replaced by Election Systems & Software (ES&S) voting equipment. The State purchased a Voting System that included a cellular modem in its digital ballot scanners as an extended configuration. Cellular modems are only verified if they are verizon modems, and it is not clear if these configurations are approved or not.
Free Speech For People, a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization, pointed out this issue on January 7, 2020. They claimed that even though the voting system purchased by RI is EAC-certified, the use of non-certified components will void the entire system’s EAC certification.
- elections.ri.gov/publications/Election_Publications/Pollworker_Training/Poll%20worker%20Manual%202020_8_27.pdf
- freespeechforpeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Rhode-Island-RFP-7549934-REDACTED.pdf
- www.providencejournal.com/news/20190809/ri-voting-machines-had-modems-in-2016-and-2018-now-state-is-assessing-its-hackability
RI VOTING EQUIPMENT VULNERABLE TO SECURITY RISKS
RI uses voting systems with outdated software that are in danger of being hacked
RI uses Election Systems & Software 5.2.0.3 Voting System statewide. This system uses end of life software (Windows 7, Microsoft Server 2008 R2) leaving them in danger of being hacked as they are no longer supported by Microsoft and have not received security patches since January 14, 2020.
- www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-windows-7-support#:~:text=Support%20for%20Windows%207%20ended,more%20vulnerable%20to%20security%20risks
- www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-server-2008#:~:text=Support%20for%20Windows%20Server%202008,infrastructure%20and%20applications%20go%20unprotected
RI DATABASE LEAKING VOTERS PERSONAL DATA
An unofficial website provides RI voter’s database for free
Voterrecords.com provides the updated voter’s database of different States, including Rhode Island’s. According to them, the information is released because the government has made it public record. This data includes confidential information such as address, phone numbers, email, party affiliation etc.
As for Rhode Island, all voter’s status, addresses and party affiliations are leaking into the Internet.
VOTING MACHINE UNABLE TO VERIFY VOTER SIGNATURES
The signatures' quality in the voter registration database prevents the use of a signature matching machine from actually matching signatures
Rhode Island is facing a shortage of poll workers in the upcoming election, and a machine purchased to verify the voter signature will not be able to complete the task due to the quality of the signatures. The signatures are a high enough quality to be used by local boards of canvassers, but the voting machine needs a higher resolution image for automated signature verification. The State Board of Elections is looking to extend the time for certifying mail ballots because of the expected increase in mail-in voting.
Rhode Island Constitutional Preamble
We, the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and to transmit the same, unimpaired, to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this Constitution of government.
