In an interview with CyberScoop this year, Microsoft’s Tom Burt advertised ElectionGuard as a bulwark against election conspiracy theories. Wallach — whose work contributed to the development of ElectionGuard — said expecting technology to counter misinformation might be a steep climb. ElectionGuard provides evidence about voting, but it’s less certain whether anyone’s willing to embrace it, he said.
“There are a lot of people who will stand behind what the math does and doesn’t prove,” Wallach said. “Now, in the face of misinformation, what’s a mathematical proof? This is a question to which I don’t have a good answer.”