Recounts or no, US elections are still vulnerable to hacking

Pennsylvania is one of 11 states where the majority of voters use antiquated machines that store votes electronically, without printed ballots or other paper-based backups that could be used to double-check the balloting.

Like many electronic voting machines, they are vulnerable to hacking.

[...] like other voting machines adopted since the 2000 election, the paperless systems are nearing the end of their useful life — yet there is no comprehensive plan to replace them.

"If I were going to hack this election, I would go for the paperless machines because they are so hard to check," said Barbara Simons, the co-author of "Broken Ballots," a study of flawed U.S. voting technology.

The U.S. voting system — a loosely regulated, locally managed patchwork of more than 3,000 jurisdictions overseen by the states — employs more than two dozen types of machinery from 15 manufacturers.

On Nov. 8, election officials across the U.S. handled numerous complaints of aging touchscreens losing calibration and casting votes for the wrong candidate.

Congress appropriated $4 billion for election upgrades; states raced to replace punch cards and lever machines with digital technology.

In Virginia, wealthier counties near Washington have upgraded technology while lower-income counties in the state's southwest have not been able to afford it, said Edgardo Cortes, the state elections commissioner.