Are Election Systems Vulnerable To Upcoming Hacks?

One presidential candidate with the initials DT has claimed generally that "the system is rigged" and he has speculated in advance as to whether the election also might be rigged against him. At the first presidential debate, he did say that he would abide by the election result if the candidate with the initials HRC won the election.

But what does it mean to "win"? If the election result is a close one, and if she apparently tallies sufficient popular and electoral college votes to put her over the top, would he concede her victory if there are suggestions of hacking of voting systems? This question is posed because a recent Associated Press article asserts that hackers recently have targeted registration systems in greater than 20 states and cites a Homeland Security Department official for support for this assertion.

While at first blush this might fan the advance flames of controversy, federal officials and cyber security experts are reported in the article to have said that it would be "nearly impossible" for such hackers to actually change the outcome of the presidential election, primarily because election systems are "very decentralized and not connected to the internet."

Interestingly, the FBI just last month warned state officials to improve election security subsequent to hackers targeting systems in Illinois and Arizona. And the Director of the FBI said to lawmakers only last week that the FBI is looking "very, very hard" at Russian hackers who might consider trying to disrupt the election, according to the AP article. And while DT has voiced concern about the propriety of the upcoming election, the allegations from HRC have been that DT has been too...