President Donald Trump has repeatedly raised concerns about voting machine security, but experts say there are several safeguards in place to mitigate risks and verify results.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly raised concerns about voting machine security, but experts say there are several safeguards in place to mitigate risks and verify results.
Americans can have confidence that the midterm election results will be counted accurately, according to groups representing chief election officials in all 50 states.
A joint statement released on Monday from the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State added, "State and local election officials are ready to facilitate a safe and secure 2026 General Election that all Americans can rely on."
President Donald Trump has sent a very different message in the lead-up to the midterm elections. He has repeatedly raised doubts about the security of America's election infrastructure, including during a primetime address over the summer.
"Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure, including electronic voting machines and ballot counting systems, dishonest, almost all. They're vulnerable, and they're easily compromised, and people within our government knew that," Trump said.
But those vulnerabilities have long been acknowledged, according to Ryan Macias, an election security and technology consultant.
"There is no technology that does not have vulnerabilities," Macias said. "What we are trying to do is mitigate or manage that risk."
Macias said voting machines generally go through a certification process before they're procured, followed by a series of pre-election tests to make sure they're working properly.
A range of systems are used across the country, according to Verified Voting, a non-partisan organization that tracks voting equipment.
The group's database shows that less than 4% of registered voters live in jurisdictions that use direct recording electronic systems for all voters. These devices present candidate options and store voters' answers electronically.
The vast majority of voters live in places where the process has some sort of paper record, which can be used to obtain an accurate count even if there are errors or cyberattacks.
Geoff Hale with the Center for Democracy & Technology said the paper trail promotes transparency.
"You can independently determine whether the software is operating as intended or whether it's going rogue. So in this sense, every single voter who checks their ballot serves as a sensor for the performance of those systems," Hale said.
Results on election night are always unofficial, and a lot happens before those vote totals are verified to make sure they're correct.
"Checks and balances continue post-election, testing continues, audits on the paper record continue for days and, in some cases, weeks after the election to ensure that our ballots are tabulated and the outcome is correct once it gets certified," Macias said.