Podcasts Government Iowa City Foreign Relations Council ICFRC: The Election of 2016: Was It Hacked?

ICFRC: The Election of 2016: Was It Hacked?

Published: March 9, 2017, 10 a.m.

In the lead-up top the presidential election of 2016, both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were quoted saying "the system is rigged." They meant very different things, but the as the election grew closer it became evident that hackers, probably Russian, were actively attempting to break into state voter registration databases as well as engaging in an orchestrated "fake news" campaign with carefully curated and well-timed leaks of hacked e-mails. Conspiracy theories from the left and right pointed to massive voter fraud. What really happened?

Douglas Jones is an Associate Professor in the University of Iowa, Department of Computer Science. Douglas received his B.S. in Physics from Carnegie-Mellon University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He is a Member of Tau Beta Pi, the National Honor Society, and The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Douglas received the University of Iowa Office of Services for the Handicapped Certificate of Recognition. He has participated in several non-governmental organizations including Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. Douglas has studied, commented and published extensively on voting systems in Iowa and many other states plus several foreign countries.