New risks to election security have led election cybersecurity experts to recommend safety measures to protect the results of Tuesday’s recall attempt of the California Governor.

After copies of election systems were made public a few weeks ago, potentially exposing them to hackers, a group of experts on cybersecurity is recommending that California’s Secretary of State Shirley Weber conduct an election audit after Tuesday’s recall election to make sure votes are counted properly.

“As you know, about three weeks ago, binary images of the Dominion election management system (EMS) were made public,” the experts said in a letter to Weber. “While the software versions are not identical to those used in California, differences are relatively minor: the release materially elevates threats to the trustworthiness of the ongoing California recall election and to public trust in the election.”

Because of the leak, the professionals who drafted the letter are recommending that a risk-limiting audit (RLA) be conducted for the entirety of California. An RLA would make sure votes are counted correctly after an election before certifying the election’s results.

“The security concerns we are writing about here… are different from threats we have seen before, and cannot be fully defended against by technical means,” the letter said. “The only strong defense against them is the statewide RLA we are recommending for the current election.”

The recall election is set to be the first election to take place since binary images of Dominion EMS, an election system that is used throughout the country, including in many California counties, were released in August.

Although the images came from areas other than California, the systems are similar enough to those used in California to put the election at risk, according to officials.

Hackers can familiarize themselves with Dominion EMS through the leaked images, making it easier to find weaknesses in the system and interfere with elections.

“As of August 2021, thousands of unknown people can study the code and find weaknesses to plan attacks on elections,” the experts said. “The attacks can be deployed by non-technical accomplices, including voters, building maintenance personnel and election workers.”

Some ballot-marking devices from Dominion have been found to be vulnerable enough that voters could insert malware into them without being detected, according to the experts.

“That malware could spread undetected to other voting machines and potentially to the central election management system (EMS) in the county,” the cybersecurity professionals said. “That EMS software is now in the hands of countless unauthorized people…”

With information about the Dominion EMS system now available to thousands of people, the experts warn that the resulting security breach is substantial.

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