CONNECTICUT — State election officials say UConn researchers tried to expose security weaknesses in candidate voting tabulators before Connecticut selected the new equipment now used statewide.
The Secretary of the State’s Office said in an October 22 release that it enlisted UConn’s VoTeR Center during the 2024 purchasing process. Researchers evaluated the hardware and software and examined operating procedures through authorized white-hat testing.
The state says the UConn team gave high marks to Election Systems & Software equipment. About 2,500 ES&S tabulators were rolled out statewide in time for the 2025 municipal election as part of a $20 million replacement program for machines that had been in use for nearly two decades.
The tabulators are not connected to the internet, according to the state. The Secretary of the State’s Office also said the presence of foreign-made components does not by itself mean the machines are compromised or can be altered remotely.
Connecticut voters continue to mark paper ballots. Those ballots are retained for recounts and post-election audits, while local election officials conduct public logic-and-accuracy testing before elections.
A 2024 UConn account says the evaluation lasted several weeks and considered resistance to cyberattacks, support for audits, compliance with voting-system standards and risks in election procedures.
The official sources describe the testing process and the state’s conclusions, but they do not publish a full technical report or detailed exploit findings. The results therefore should not be read as a guarantee that any system is immune from future flaws or attacks.
FILE PHOTO: The accompanying image shows Connecticut officials with an ES&S tabulator during the state’s September 2024 modernization announcement. It is not a photograph of the UConn testing.