On the heels of Florida Senator, Bill Nelson, announcing the election system may be vulnerable to hacking, South Carolina officials are making sure your vote is cast the way you want it to be. 

The SC Election Commission explained measures already in place to protect your vote. 

It starts with an e-mail. Hackers entice you to open an attachment and then have access to your account and even the network its on. 

So one of the first line of defense for the election commission is training all its staff on identifying cyber threats. 

“Every time I’m opening my e-mail, I’m suspicious of it. It could be coming from my boss. I’m still going to take a look at it before opening any attachments or links,” Chris Whitmire with the commission joked. 

The state’s voter registration system is online and most vulnerable to cyber attacks. The database holds voters’ information and tracks absentee ballots. The commission says an attack on this system could hurt the integrity of an election. 

Whitmire explained, “They didn’t steal any data, they didn’t make the system unusable.. but they publicly showed they could penetrate it that would undermine confidence in elections with the public.”

When it comes to the voting machines, the devices are not connected to the internet or any kind of network.

The commission is more concerned with physical access to the machines than cyber threats. 

“The key with the voting system is to protect the physical security and access to it,” added Whitmire. 

Right now the state is using a system that is 15-years-old and does not come with a paper record of your vote, which would verify your selections.

The commission is hoping to have a new system in place by the 2020 election. The commission already has $11 million towards replacing the 13,000 voting machines.