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Michigan's Secretary of State office responds to talk of potential election hacking

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Mark Brush
/
Michigan Radio
“As far as we're concerned here in Michigan, there's no suggestion or allegation that there were any hacks or any attempts to that," Woodhams said.";

Yesterday, New York Magazine published an article that quickly went viral. It's entitled "Experts Urge Clinton Campaign to Challenge Election Results in 3 Swing States."

One of those swing states mentioned in the piece is Michigan, and one of the experts cited is J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society.

Fred Woodhams from the Secretary of State's office joined Stateside to discuss the likelihood of election hacking in Michigan. 

“I’m a little confused with it,” Woodhams said of the New York Magazine article, which apparently contained some misinformation and prompted a clarification from Halderman.

“The initial story in the magazine seemed to imply that there’s different types of voting systems used in Michigan. There are not. We exclusively use optical scan paper ballot systems. So every voter in Michigan marked a paper ballot.”

Woodhams went on to explain the process by which ballots are cast and counted in Michigan and how the tabulating machines are secured. 

Find the full conversation above. 

And read more about what exactly Halderman and other election experts are asking policymakers to do here (*spoiler alert, they're not saying there is evidence of hacking, they're saying hacking is possible and policies should be put in place to detect it.) 

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