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Schneier on Security · September 7, 2026

Security Vulnerability in a Voting System

CybersecurityPolitical SciencePublic Policy
THE AI ANGLE
Automating an exploit from a research paper to recover ballot order from public datasets

Using an AI coding agent and a four-year-old vulnerability paper, an analyst recovered the order of ballots cast in Georgia's May 2026 primary without accessing voting machines, code, or non-public systems. The exploit relied solely on public early-voting lists and cast-vote records (CVRs), which are published to ensure election results remain independently verifiable. This demonstrates how accessible AI tools can rapidly turn theoretical, unpatched election vulnerabilities into functional threats against ballot secrecy.

THE TEACHING ANGLE
The tension between election transparency—releasing granular cast-vote records for public verification—and the preservation of secret ballots when data can be combined to re-identify voter choices.

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