\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor has completed an audit of the state’s motor voter system, which allows residents to register to vote through PennDOT.What was reviewedThe audit reviewed over 200,000 voter registration applications submitted between January and June 2024 and found one non-U.S. citizen’s application, which was caught and corrected immediately. “PennDOT’s motor voter process works as intended and is in compliance with state and federal law,” DeFoor said. An improper applicationHowever, DeFoor noted that auditors found one instance where PennDOT improperly allowed a non-U.S. citizen’s voter registration application to be sent. “PennDOT improperly allowed one non-U.S. citizen’s voter registration application to be sent to the Department of State,” he said. Officials confirmed the mistake was corrected immediately, and the individual is not registered to vote. Additionally, 57 flagged applications were found to belong to citizens and were linked to a search error during the audit. Cybersecurity concernsAuditors also identified weak internal controls over system access, stating that PennDOT could not fully demonstrate which employees had access to the motor voter system or whether those employees should have had access. “The cybersecurity findings we identified are especially important because effective user access controls ensure that employees only have access to the application functions necessary for them to perform their job responsibilities,” Director of Bureau of Information Technology Audits Todd Wisniewski said. While the audit concluded that the motor voter system is functioning as intended, DeFoor’s office made eight recommendations, including allowing PennDOT to void mistaken voter applications.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor has completed an audit of the state’s motor voter system, which allows residents to register to vote through PennDOT.<\/p>\n
What was reviewed<\/p>\n
The audit reviewed over 200,000 voter registration applications submitted between January and June 2024 and found one non-U.S. citizen’s application, which was caught and corrected immediately. <\/p>\n
“PennDOT’s motor voter process works as intended and is in compliance with state and federal law,” DeFoor said. <\/p>\n
An improper application<\/p>\n
However, DeFoor noted that auditors found one instance where PennDOT improperly allowed a non-U.S. citizen’s voter registration application to be sent. <\/p>\n
“PennDOT improperly allowed one non-U.S. citizen’s voter registration application to be sent to the Department of State,” he said. <\/p>\n
Officials confirmed the mistake was corrected immediately, and the individual is not registered to vote. <\/p>\n
Additionally, 57 flagged applications were found to belong to citizens and were linked to a search error during the audit. <\/p>\n
Cybersecurity concerns<\/p>\n
Auditors also identified weak internal controls over system access, stating that PennDOT could not fully demonstrate which employees had access to the motor voter system or whether those employees should have had access. <\/p>\n
“The cybersecurity findings we identified are especially important because effective user access controls ensure that employees only have access to the application functions necessary for them to perform their job responsibilities,” Director of Bureau of Information Technology Audits Todd Wisniewski said. <\/p>\n
While the audit concluded that the motor voter system is functioning as intended, DeFoor’s office made eight recommendations, including allowing PennDOT to void mistaken voter applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor has completed an audit of the state’s motor voter system, which allows residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2288,76184,76181,76176,14704,8528,76183,19530,75976,76178,76182,3431,28,76179,76177,30,29,85,76180],"class_list":{"0":"post-169074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-bureau","9":"tag-cybersecurity-concernsauditor","10":"tag-defoor","11":"tag-director-of-bureau-of-information-technology-audits-todd-wisniewski","12":"tag-employee","13":"tag-federal-law","14":"tag-improper-applicationhowever","15":"tag-instance","16":"tag-motor-voter-system","17":"tag-non-citizen-voter-application","18":"tag-non-u-s-citizen","19":"tag-penndot","20":"tag-pennsylvania","21":"tag-pennsylvania-audit","22":"tag-pennsylvania-auditor-general-tim-defoor","23":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","24":"tag-pennsylvania-news","25":"tag-state","26":"tag-system-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}