Most of the 31 states allow “internet voting” only in the technical sense. They are not casting day-of votes online, but rather emailing or faxing in their ballots in advance. With one exception, this right extends almost exclusively to uniformed service officers overseas, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. It’s not just online voting: It’s extremely hard to hack an election in general. Officials and experts have said talk of the election being hacked or rigged is “hyperbolic.”
Alaska is the only state that allows all voters the option to vote through an online portal. Arizona and North Dakota have online portals for service members overseas. Missouri also has an online portal, but only for voters in a “hostile fire area.”
In theory, scammers could flood the servers of a State voting portal and block legitimate citizens from voting on election day. There’s just one problem with that plan — people overseas typically don’t cast their vote on Election Day.
Absentee voters have a window of weeks before the election to cast their ballot. A DDoS attack would have to last for days or weeks to stymie a significant number of voters. It would also give state officials a significant amount of time to adapt and find a solution. There is no evidence such an attack has happened.
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