Will security concerns slow down Rhode Island’s speedy vote count?
A mere hour after polls closed on Election Day, while many states were kicking off days of ballot counting, Rhode Islanders watching closely knew who would win all of the key statewide and federal races, including the ultra-competitive 2nd Congressional District battle.
News organizations were able to call races (and meet deadlines) at hours that a few years ago would have been considered unthinkably early and get a head start formulating their post-vote takeaways.
It hasn’t always been so fast.
Rhode Island’s rapid election reporting is partly a consequence of its ultra-compact geography and the centralization of its elections bureaucracy compared to larger states where counties play a big role.
And it’s partly because of decisions Rhode Island officials made a few years ago that turned it into the only state in the country where 100% of voting machines transmit results wirelessly.
The vote-scanning machines into which voters feed their ballots, called DS200s, have modems beam results directly from local polling places to the state Board of Elections headquarters in Cranston, where they are then posted for the public.
The modems were hailed as a major technological upgrade when Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea leased the current voting equipment before the 2016 election.
But after Russian interference in that presidential vote alarmed officials throughout the country, they’ve become a potential liability as well.
Any information technology system that is connected to the internet for any period of time theoretically can be infiltrated by cyber criminals or terrorists.
So, after 2016, some states and counties that had connected equipment took them offline and went back to delivering results by phone or in person. (In several states, some counties use modems to transmit results, but it is not done statewide.)
Rhode Island officials also were concerned.
Fearing hackers in the run-up to the 2020 presidential vote, the state Board of Elections investigated the modem question while preparing for a needed upgrade from 3G to 4G. The board asked information technology professionals for advice and the National Guard for help.
Ultimately, they decided not to try to change equipment or…