Harrison County circuit clerk Connie Ladner opens a small clear bag and takes out a labeled disk, about the size of her palm.
"This is the memory card, which is labeled with the precint, the date of the election, and the number of the precinct," she says.
These memory cards go inside the 85 election machines Harrison County voters will use on election day. In addition to preparing and testing the machines and ballots, on the day of the election, officials will secure the machines by sealing the memory cards inside.
"Everything is done in house, so it doesn't go through so many hands," she says. "Just a few hands of elected officials here at the local level that make sure the ballot is coded correctly, that when you make that mark on the ballot, that is who gets the vote. Testing is done for days and weeks, prior to an election, to ensure that who you vote for is who the tabulation is for."
The FBI is warning states to step up cyber-security after it found evidence that foreign hackers had targeted election data systems in two states. But Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann says these hackers are more interested in stealing personal information than elections.
"So then they can get your credit card, and then your bank statement, and everything else," he says. "They're continuously doing that kind of activity and we're continuously thwarting it."
He adds: "To put it into perspective, during the month of July, we had over 5,000 attempts to penetrate the firewall here for the Statewide Election Management System, so there are people out there all over that are simply trying to get into these various state systems. We have been successful in thwarting those, and we have a Mississippi company that monitors it for us daily."
