Writing code to flip votes 'very easy to do' but 'hard to stop,' programmer warns Arizona Senate

A computer programmer testified this week to an Arizona Senate committee that voting machines are susceptible to manipulation as the panel seeks to require that voting machine components are made in the U.S. and that the source code for the machines used in the state is available to government officials.

Attorney and computer programmer Clinton Eugene Curtis told the Arizona Senate Election Committee Monday that there are multiple ways voting machines can be hacked to change election results.

Curtis, a Democrat, began his presentation with a video clip of him testifying before Congress following the 2004 presidential election about how he believed that the election in Ohio was hacked.

In the video, Curtis explained that in 2000, at the request of a Florida politician, he created a program that "would flip the votes 51-49 to whoever you wanted it to go to and whichever race you wanted to win." He added that elections officials wouldn't be able to detect such a program.