What five experts say about election rigging

What thoughts keep election officials up at night?

Voter ballots being altered.

Hackers changing voter registration records.

An election night internet attack.

National experts along with state and local elections officials say the good news is there are multiple levels of protection in place — technological, mechanical and human — that make these events unlikely.

Online hackers can’t get at voting machines or vote tabulation machines, for example, because they are never connected to the internet.

But hacks to online elections systems — such as voter registration lists and election night reporting — are still possible. In fact, hackers already attacked elections systems in Arizona and Illinois, which temporarily shut down their voter registration systems in June to investigate and install stronger security measures.

Those attacks were “wake up calls” for state officials to be even more vigilant to look for and thwart hackers, said Kay Stimson, communications director for the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Experts warn that interlopers could cause mischief and disrupt an election, even though it is very unlikely they could actually change the results.

Here’s what some had to say:

Jon Husted, Ohio Secretary of State, Columbus, Ohio:

“There’s always the potential that there is something out there that we never expected. However I think it ‘s highly unlikely that anything like this would ever happen.”

Matthew Masterson, Commissioner on U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Washington D.C:

“There is very little a hacker could do to impact the integrity of the elections system. They could just cause mischief.”

Merle King, executive director, Center for Election Systems, Kennesaw State University, Georgia:

“In order to sweep an entire state in a hack, the conspiracy would have to be so large that if all the conspirators simply went to the polls and voted they would carry the election.”

Steve Harsman, deputy director Montgomery County Board of Elections, Dayton, Ohio:

“Every operation is a Republican and Democrat team. There’s no one party ever in any possession or control of any (elections) process (in Ohio.)”

Ellis Jacobs, lead attorney, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Dayton, Ohio:

“My take is that the voting systems are very secure. And we have the voter verified paper audit trail that allows us to check all of the results.”

Tim Mattice, executive director, The Election Center, Katy, Texas:

“It’s very important to point out that the actual voting systems themselves are not connected to the internet. They can’t hack into the voting system itself because there is no inter-connectivity to the internet.”

You can see more to this story on Sunday at MyDaytonDailyNews.com.