Artificial Intelligence and Secure Elections

The benefit of AI for our elections is that it can expose and make public the massive vulnerabilities of our election systems so that we can finally replace them with the systems that have worked for us for generations;

David Robb ——Bio and Archives--April 20, 2026

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This ability of AI to identify flaws, AKA “bugs” in software is extremely valuable in developing good defect free software, but on the dark side, that same ability can be used to find ways to hack and control existing systems. Most of the current AI systems either have, or will soon have capabilities similar to what Anthropic demonstrated.

It is just a matter of time, if it has not already been done, for someone to ask an AI system to identify exploitable flaws in our election systems and to provide code that would allow them to remotely alter ballot counts and election results. By remotely, I mean worldwide. With remote access someone in North Korea, China, Serbia, Somalia, or Greenland could access tabulator systems, voter registration databases, election records, and every other part of our electronic systems, altering operations in a multitude of ways that would render any election results complete fiction. All our election systems, ranging from lowly poll pads used to check in voters at a polling location, to our voter rolls, to tabulators and election databases are vulnerable and have been known to be vulnerable for many years. An AI system would have a field day producing thousands of outcome altering exploits.

This vulnerability is not speculation or theoretical. Researchers have, on multiple occasions, demonstrated an ability to gain access to tabulator systems, and other elements of our electronic systems to alter operation, change vote selections, and otherwise corrupt election results. No part of our electronic election systems is secure. There are several reasons for this insecurity. At the lowest level, there are basic flaws in operating systems such as Windows and the election applications themselves. At a slightly higher level are failures in proper use of such protections as might exist, including use of anti-virus software, failure to use secure passwords, improper configuration of systems, and other poor operating practices.

At a next level is deliberate violation of regulations and safeguards by election officials because compliance is inconvenient, or deemed unnecessary. A prime example is the use of........

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