Elon Musk on EVM highlights 'high' hacking risk ahead of US elections

Elon Musk says on X we should eliminate electronic voting machines
An undated image of Elon Musk. — Freepik
An undated image of Elon Musk. — Freepik

Billionaire businessman and Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, Elon Musk, called for eliminating Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) as he responded to a social media post on voting irregularities in the United States. He stated that the risk of EVMs being hacked is "still too high". 

Earlier today, an independent candidate in the US presidential race, Robert F Kennedy Jr, alleged illegalities in a primary election. 

He 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?" 

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Kennedy Jr who said that US citizens need to know whether every one of their votes were counted, also called for returning to paper ballots to ensure "honest and fair elections". 

Sharing the post, Musk said, "We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high." 

"We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high," Musk posted on X (formerly known as Twitter). 

Primary elections for the New Progressive Party (PNP) and the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) were held in Puerto Rico on June 2. Nonetheless, hundreds of ballots displaying erroneous results were recorded by both parties; the PPD identified about 350 inconsistencies and the PNP claimed over 700 problems. 

Later on, the Elections Commission audited paper receipts from hundreds of ballot-counting devices in order to complete the vote tally. 

The commission added that when the disparities were found, it is examining the terms of its agreement with an electronic voting provider.