[palmer]

Can you please surmise for all of the “thinking people” the logic of having computer networking/internet functionality on a vote ballot scanning/counting machine?

I'll let NBC tell you why:

The three largest voting manufacturing companies — Election Systems &Software, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic — have acknowledged they all put modems in some of their tabulators and scanners. The reason? So that unofficial election results can more quickly be relayed to the public. Those modems connect to cell phone networks, which, in turn, are connected to the internet.

The largest manufacturer of voting machines, ES&S, told NBC News their systems are protected by firewalls and are not on the “public internet.” But both Skoglund and Andrew Appel, a Princeton computer science professor and expert on elections, said such firewalls can and have been breached.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/online-vulnerable-experts-find-nearly-three-dozen-u-s-voting-n1112436

[know.your.why]

I'll let NBC tell you why:

I dont think that you got my point...that is...a ballot counting machine is a simple sovereign stand-alone machine that has four functions and four functions only: 1)Scan ballots. 2)Record the selected vote. 3)Count the vote. 4)Report the vote count. Now...the vote count is embedded in an encrypted file (for security). That file is copied via USB memory stick and then sent to the county and eventually the state while at all points the encryption follows and validates/certifies the count. The count in the machine ALWAYS matches the encrypted file. There is ZERO necessity for and computer networking WITH the ballot counting machine and to have it defeats the purpose of a secure machine.