As Americans head to the polls, Election DayIt is essential to have confidence that their vote will be counted accurately and that the democratic process will be free from interference, experts said.

But with early voting well underway and just days before the remainder of the votes for the 2024 presidential election are cast, unfounded conspiracy theories about the security of voting machines are threatening the fight for the White House.

The 2020 election saw former President Donald Trump foster some distrust in the electoral system, claimed by some fellow Republicans, supporters and the media.

Although conspiracy theories about voting machines, such as internet hacking and widespread physical tampering, have been debunked, misinformation about the democratic process is pervasive on social media and is fueling some of the recent lawsuits filed by RNC-aligned groups in key states.

Elon Musk, a top Trump backer and owner of trust a computer program, because it’s just too easy to hack,” Musk said.

However, multiple reviews of 2020 election fraud claims and a landmark defamation lawsuit between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News found that rigged conspiracy theories and Trump’s claim that he won the election against President Joe Biden were unfounded.

In April 2023, Dominion reached a nearly $800 million settlement with Fox for spreading false theories on conservative news channel platforms.

Additionally, state and federal courts have dismissed more than 60 lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies in six states seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“These claims had no credibility,” Lauren Cristella, president of the Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization in Philadelphia, told ABC News.

“I am confident that our elections are free, fair, safe and secure, and that the systems that we have in place, the checks and balances that we have in place, are working,” Cristella added.

So how do voting machines work? And what security measures are in place, from the federal level to the community level, to ensure that every vote is counted and free from interference?

Before Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris battle it out over America’s Nov. 5 vote, experts said understanding the security measures that follow polls, from the election to the count, can bring clarity and comfort to the process .

What voting machines are used in elections?

While election officials use technology for voter registration, counting and, in some cases, voting, the system is largely centered on paper ballots.

“In almost every place in the country, about 98% of voters, when they vote, there will be a paper trail of their vote,” said Derek Tisler, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice for elections and government. program, told ABC News.

Historically, five types of voting machines have been used in the United States: hand-counted paper, mechanical lever machines, punched card machines, scanned paper ballots, and direct-recording electronic devices, according to the MIT Election Lab.

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As the 2024 election approaches, paper-based optical voting systems are widely used to count physical votes, which can be compared to the technology used to obtain a standardized test, according to MIT.

Voters mark their ballot in a private voting booth, then it is scanned as it is placed in the box, with the votes counted at the end of the day.

Electronic direct-recording systems use buttons or a touch screen to record votes, often with a paper ballot for audits or a recount.

And fully electronic ballot marking devices and systems are primarily used to accommodate voters with disabilities.

There are 10 different voting system manufacturers that have been tested and approved by the Federal Election Assistance Commission (ECA), including Clear Ballot, Dominion Voting Systems, and Election Systems. & Software (ES&S), to name a few.

The road to approval includes stress testing on equipment and software defect checks, ensuring that machines have the basic functionality, accessibility and security capabilities required of these systems, according to the EAC .

“So every voting system, including ours, goes through a certification process at accredited testing labs,” Chip Trowbridge, Clear Ballot’s chief technology officer, told ABC News.

“Every change, no matter how small, whether it’s a change in source code or software, needs to be reviewed,” Trowbridge said.

According to Trowbridge, states and local jurisdictions also have certification processes for voting machine manufacturers that vary by location.

What security measures are taken to protect voting machines?

One of the first lines of defense against tampering is the physical security of voting machines, according to Ted Allen, a professor of embedded systems engineering at Ohio State University and a member of the MIT Election Lab.

Before Election Day and after voting, the machines are stored in secure locations with access limited to election officials, Allen told ABC News.

At polling places, voting machines are constantly under surveillance, with election officials and security personnel trained to ensure no unauthorized access is possible, according to Allen.

“The paper, the chain of custody of the material and the chain of custody of the ballots are all generally studied and controlled very carefully,” Allen said.

However, during the 2020 election, a few individuals were accused of tampering with voting machines.

Tina Peters, a Republican election official in Colorado, was sentenced to nine years in prison for leading a security breach of the county’s election system after being inspired by false and baseless claims of voter fraud.

She was convicted of giving an individual access to the election software she used for her county. Screenshots of the software have appeared on right-wing websites.

In Georgia, bail bondsman Scott Hall was indicted for the alleged voting machine equipment violation following the 2020 election in Coffee County.

Hall and several of his co-defendants allegedly “entered into a conspiracy to intentionally interfere” with the results of the 2020 election and “illegally” access voting machines to obtain data, including ballot images.

Hall pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with election duties. He will receive probation and has agreed to testify in the future, including at the trial of other co-defendants.

Although no system is ever completely impervious to threats, voting machines are protected by a series of technical and procedural measures that make them extremely difficult to hack.

A spokesperson for electoral systems & Software, Inc., told ABC News that aside from physical controls, the company’s voting equipment adheres to secure practices for the creation, transfer and storage of important election files and data.

Using encryption and digital signing of data, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)-compliant cryptographic modules and the creation of encrypted USB drives programmed for that specific election prevent tampering by unauthorized agents, according to ES.&S.

Do voting machines connect to the Internet?

Lack of internet access during the voting process is a critical safeguard to make voting machines difficult to hack.

The machines used to scan ballots at a polling place are incapable of having any Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, radio or network connection, according to Trowbridge.

“These systems absolutely cannot have a network,” Trowbridge said. “In fact, if you look at Clear Ballot’s machines, the only wire coming out of them is a power cord.”

The central scanning equipment is networked, according to Trowbridge, but the technology relies on an isolated network completely separate from the public Internet.

This significantly reduces the risk of remote hacking or unauthorized access from external sources, he said.

Even if a hacker attempts to gain access to a voting machine, they will have to physically tamper with the machine itself, which may be more difficult due to physical security measures.

Regarding November 5, Derek Tisler stressed that there were always checks and balances available in the process to ensure that no individual could disrupt anything.

“Public trust is essential to the democratic process, and that’s why elections are transparent,” Tisler said.