Structure of US Voting System 'More Resilient' to Possible Cyberattacks

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The widely dispersed and offline US vote-counting system helps defend the election process from malicious cyber actors, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said on Thursday.

"The beauty of the American voting system is that it is dispersed among the 50 states and it clunky as heck," Comey stated at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, DC.

Comey noted that because US voting is not "a swift part of the Internet of things," it makes the system "more resilient and farther away from an actor who might be looking to crawl down a fiber-optic cable."

US officials, including Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, have raised concerns in recent weeks of the US vulnerability to some form of cyberattack aimed at affecting the outcome of the 2016 presidential elections.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are currently working with local and state officials to enhance the security of the voting systems. The FBI is investigating the "intentions and motivations" of nation-states and other actors who may have an active plan to disrupt the US election, Comey stated.

The renewed concerns over cyber vulnerabilities follow the July hack of the Democratic National Committee.

Numerous US jurisdictions use electronic voting machines, but many other still use traditional paper ballots or mail-in voting.