Image courtesy of Getty Images "); } else if(is_tablet()){ slot_number++; document.write(" Wisconsin is one of the states that uses a closed network to transmit unofficial results, but it says its voting machines are not connected: Voting systems used in Wisconsin are federally tested and certified, with the exception of systems that transmit unofficial results. Voting systems equipped with cellular modems have not received federal certification. We contacted officials from the remaining five swing states to ask if elections had gone smoothly and will update this report should they respond. As for Tulare County in California, the same journalist who made the report that sparked suspicions presented a new report on Nov. 12 indicating that they had asked county officials about these concerns. "In California. It's actually illegal for any part of the voting system to be connected to the internet. As such, our voting system operates within a fully air-gapped environment. Meaning it's completely isolated from the internet and any other network," Stephanie Hill, the systems and procedures analyst for Tulare County Registrar of Voters, told ABC30. The day after the election, on Nov. 6, 2024, Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly released a statement reiterating that the election had been secure: As we have said repeatedly, our election infrastructure has never been more secure and the election community never better prepared to deliver safe, secure, free, and fair elections for the American people. This is what we saw yesterday in the peaceful and secure exercise of democracy. Importantly, we have no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure. We also contacted Verified Voting, a non-governmental, non-partisan foundation dedicated to "promoting the responsible use of technology in elections." In an email statement, they explained that while Starlink had been used in some localities, its use was in no way related to the voting systems in place (emphasis ours): Starlink provided connectivity in a number of jurisdictions for electronic poll books (EPBs) in this election. Neither Starlink nor other types of communication networks play any role in counting votes. Most votes are tallied on scanners that don't have internet connections, and then election officials use memory cards to transfer the results to the central tabulator. The scanners also produce printed records of their vote totals prior to transmittal. Most states, including all the so-called swing states, use paper ballots or records that voters can verify, and routinely examine some of these ballots by hand to check the counts. Our elections produce huge quantities of physical evidence. A satellite system like Starlink cannot steal that. Initial election results from polling place voting are unofficial. Those very local results are compiled with all the results in a jurisdiction, such as a county, but before the collected results are finalized, there are processes in place to reconcile the number of voters with the number of ballots. In the past polling place results were communicated to the county's elections office by means of a modem. This practice of sending results electronically is somewhat rare, but regardless, none of those electronically transmitted results are the official final results. The paper ballots counted by tabulators provide evidence of voters' choices in hard copy. Audits and/or recounts examine that physical evidence. Sources