Best safeguards vs. cheating in automated elections

There are six and only six areas where cheating can occur in automated elections. They, of course, do not include those outside the system itself, like vote buying, flying voters, and other external schemes. Let me discuss each of these six.

First is during the reading of the ballot. Through malicious software, the marks in the ballots can be read, then interpreted incorrectly to favor some candidates. But even if there is no mal-intent, there is also the possibility that due to some defect in the machine, hardware and/or software, the votes could be read and interpreted incorrectly.