Live Updates: Donald Trump, Kamala Harris Election News

Former President Donald Trump and one of his most vocal supporters, tech billionaire Elon Musk, have claimed without evidence that the potential for voter fraud poses a major threat.

Voting is ultimately an act of trust in democracy, and undermining the system is clearly a strategy used by Trump’s allies, despite all evidence to the contrary.

To better understand the security of U.S. election systems and why there is no evidence they are unsafe, I spoke with CNN’s Zachary Cohen, national security officer, and Sean Lyngaas, cybersecurity officer . They are both part of a larger team of reporters at CNN focused on election security. Our conversation has been edited for clarity. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

WOLF: How does the voting process generally work with these systems?

LYNGAAS: They have different devices that manage the voter registration database. So when you go to vote on Election Day or whenever you go, they can compare the contents of that voter registration with what they have in their records.

About 97% of votes are cast using paper certificates. Federal and election officials use this as a reference point to convince people that their vote is safe and accurate, which it is.

Voting machines – some are touch tablets with a panel where you can make your choice and print it out. In other systems, a voter fills out the ballot with a pen and then enters it into a voting machine.

COHEN: There is a common misconception that the voting machines represent the entire process. In reality, they are part of a larger system that includes voting, storage and counting of votes. In many states, a county transfers the data it receives from the machines themselves via USB and manually connects it to a computer.

All of this data is then collected and collected online by the Secretary of State or whoever is ultimately responsible for holding this data. Then of course there is the ballot paper part, which serves more to reassure the voter, but can also be used as a checking tool.

Read more about how the voting systems work here.