County officials assure voters of election security

MARQUETTE — Donald Trump has been making the rounds across the country, saying that the upcoming presidential election, which is less than three weeks away, is ‘rigged’ in favor of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. In Marquette County, officials say they use a vote tallying system that can’t be rigged or manipulated.

Marquette County Clerk Linda Talsma says the voting system that’s used during elections or primaries uses an analog signal to collect and transport data. They’ve been using the same system for over 20 years.

Talsma says the State of Michigan takes voter security very seriously.

“The analog line is used for that reason. You can’t effect that system,” said Talsma. “What happens is that it goes right to my system which is not connected to the Internet at all, so there’s no way for any kind of security breach there.”

“I also had the FBI here checking my system to make sure it was OK. I can assure the voters to be very secure, we’re safe, we’re OK. There’s no compromising,” Talsma added.

Talsma hopes have new, updated election equipment sometime next year. Secretary of State Ruth Johnson also weighed in on Donald Trump’s comments.

Johnson told the Detroit News this week that the state has the proper checks and balances to make sure that the elections will be done properly and with integrity.