Electronic voting systems

Electronic voting systems are a form of voting where the ballot is aided through a computer or a digital device. In the United States, these systems are called a Directing Recording Electronic Systems or DRE. In this form of electronic voting, touchscreen are often used for the voter to choose their candidates and issues, which is then stored in the computer's hard drive in the memory. While not a lot of states solely use the DRE system, multiple states have started using this system along with the tradition paper ballot sometimes. As the digitalization of the voting process increases, there are other problems that arise such as the vulnerability of voting systems and election rigging.

In Popular Culture

In the second of season of ABC's widely-popular political thriller, Scandal, one of the plotlines included the rigging of the fictional president, Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III, first election. In the show, his team, without his knowledge, rigged the cartridges in the digital systems so the vote would go to him no matter what. The rigged cartridges were specifically placed in voting systems around Defiance County in the state of Ohio. The plot showed that the election was extremely close and the winner would be determined by who would win the state of Ohio, a swing state, by winning Defiance County. In the TV show, Fitzgerald Grant is re-elected as they were able to keep the election rigging a secret, but it revealed a strong vulnerability in electronic voting systems as the characters were easily able to slip in the rigged cartridges with the regular ones.