One in 3 Americans Worry Their Vote Will Be Made Public
As Election Day nears, many Americans are worried their votes could be made public, according to a new survey.
Roughly one in three said they were worried someone could learn about their vote, and 73 percent of those feared their vote could be exposed to cybercriminals, according to a new survey from Malwarebytes.
The survey looked at 1,700 responses from newsletter readers.
The fear over votes becoming public even led to 3 percent of respondents saying that they would not vote based on these privacy concerns.
Altogether, 74 percent of those surveyed said they considered the election season to be a risky time for privacy and personal data protection, and the same number said they do not think the U.S. election process will be free from cyber interference.
"The electoral process, believe it or not, is a lot like cybersecurity. It's complex, relies on old systems, and requires active participation," said David Ruiz, senior privacy advocate at Malwarebytes, in a statement. "Unfortunately, this is also why it's so ripe for abuse, as cybercriminals leverage uncertainty, confusion, and urgency to launch election-related scams."
To avoid election-related scams, you should be cautious about fake emails and text messages, and avoid clicking on links, which could secretly be phishing attempts to steal your personal data.
It's also best to avoid participating in surveys asking for personal information and ignore unsolicited phone calls.
In recent years, cybercriminals have been able to use artificial intelligence to make their phishing attacks more successful. This can include impersonating public officials and their campaign teams, asking for money and then scamming victims who believe they're making a donation.
But when it comes to the actual security of casting your ballot, election officials have been amping up their cybersecurity ahead of Election Day.
"The rigorous testing that we conduct allows us to eliminate problems before ballots are cast," Cord Byrd, Florida's Republican Secretary of State, said, as reported by Yahoo News.
The cybersecurity testing includes many hacking attempts to make sure there are no vulnerabilities for those casting their ballots on Election Day.
"We ask the good guys to try to hack us and tell us where there are holes in our fence so we can patch those," Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said.
Robert Shapiro, a political science professor at Columbia University, said election security has been an increasingly strong concern among both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris supporters.
"I do not think it will affect overall turnout," Shapiro told Newsweek. "This will be a high turnout election because of its closeness and the excitement surrounding it."
Generally, Americans can keep their votes secret and pretend to others to avoid conflict in their everyday lives, Shapiro said. But when your vote doesn't match your family or friends', the consequences can be severe.
"The case that stands out in all this is that of women voters who are voting for Harris but whose husbands or significant others are voting for Trump," Shapiro said. "Or conflicts within a family or neighborhood. This is of greater personal concern that having their vote out in public in cyberspace—they can avoid that. But it is the dynamics of personal life where the tension is."
