In the wake of recent voting irregularities in Puerto Rico’s primary elections, Robert F Kennedy Jr, an independent candidate for President of the United States, has called for a return to paper ballots to ensure the integrity of elections. His stance has been echoed by CEO of Tesla and X, Elon Musk, who voiced concerns over the potential for electronic voting machines to be hacked.
Independent candidate for US Prez highlights EVM issue
Kennedy took to social media to highlight the issue, and wrote: “Puerto Rico’s primary elections just experienced hundreds of voting irregularities related to electronic voting machines, according to the Associated Press. Luckily, there was a paper trail so the problem was identified and vote tallies corrected. What happens in jurisdictions where there is no paper trail?”
He emphasised the importance of every vote being accurately counted and the necessity of preventing election interference, advocating for a nationwide return to paper ballots. "US citizens need to know that every one of their votes were counted, and that their elections cannot be hacked. We need to return to paper ballots to avoid electronic interference with elections. My administration will require paper ballots and we will guarantee honest and fair elections," Kennedy stated.
Scrap EVMs to prevent hacking threats, says Musk
Elon Musk responded in agreement, asserting, “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high.”
The discussion follows an announcement by Puerto Rico’s elections commission on June 12 indicating a review of its contract with Dominion Voting Systems after numerous discrepancies were uncovered during the primaries.
Puerto Rico election marred by EVM glitches
Puerto Rico's primary elections have been marred by controversy and scrutiny over voting irregularities linked to electronic voting machines (EVMs), as reported by the Associated Press.
According to the elections commission of Puerto Rico, the primary elections held recently witnessed numerous discrepancies, primarily attributed to software glitches affecting machines supplied by Dominion Voting Systems. Jessika Padilla Rivera, interim president of the commission, acknowledged that the malfunction caused some machines to inaccurately calculate and report vote totals. Instances were reported where machine-recorded votes differed significantly from those on paper receipts, with some machines even reversing totals or registering zero votes for certain candidates.
“The concern is that we obviously have elections in November, and we must provide the (island) not only with the assurance that the machine produces a correct result, but also that the result it produces is the same one that is reported,” Padilla said.
In response to the widespread irregularities, the elections commission is conducting a thorough review of its contract with Dominion Voting Systems. More than 6,000 Dominion machines were deployed for Puerto Rico's primaries, where errors affected races including those for governor and mayor.
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