SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called for eliminating electronic voting machines (EVMs) citing that these machines could be hacked by humans or artificial intelligence.
The CEO of Tesla and X, echoed the stance of Robert F Kennedy Jr, an independent candidate in the US presidential race, who called for a return to paper ballots.
“We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” Musk wrote in a post on X (formally Twitter), while sharing a post by Robert F Kennedy Jr, who initially wrote about EVM irregularities during elections in Puerto Rico.
In the wake of recent voting irregularities in Puerto Rico’s primary elections, Robert F Kennedy Jr called for a return to paper ballots to ensure the integrity of elections.
“Puerto Rico’s primary elections just experienced hundreds of voting irregularities related to electronic voting machines. Luckily, there was a paper trail so the problem was identified and vote tallies corrected,” US presidential contender Robert F Kennedy Jr. said in his original X post, citing the Associated Press.
He emphasised the importance of every vote being accurately counted and the necessity of preventing election interference, advocating for a nationwide return to paper ballots.
““What happens in jurisdictions where there is no paper trail? US citizens need to know that every one of their votes were counted, and that their elections cannot be hacked. We need to return to paper ballots to avoid electronic interference with elections. My administration will require paper ballots and we will guarantee honest and fair elections,” Kennedy stated.
Puerto Rico election marred by EVM glitches
The Puerto Rican elections commission announced earlier this Tuesday that it is reevaluating its contract with a US electronic voting company after it found scores of discrepancies in voting following the island’s heated primaries.
The problem stemmed from a software issue that caused machines supplied by Dominion Voting Systems to incorrectly calculate vote totals, the Puerto Rican poll body’s interim president, Jessika Padilla Rivera, told the Associated Press.
Instances were reported where machine-recorded votes differed significantly from those on paper receipts, with some machines even reversing totals or registering zero votes for certain candidates.
In response to the widespread irregularities, the elections commission is conducting a thorough review of its contract with Dominion Voting Systems. More than 6,000 Dominion machines were deployed for Puerto Rico's primaries, where errors affected races including those for governor and mayor.