As voters cast their ballots in this year's presidential election, there has been talk of voter fraud.

  • Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office spent Tuesday testing voting equipment
  • Supervisor Craig Latimer said tests are part of assuring public in the voting process
  • Election Day is Nov. 8

With just three weeks until Election Day, Republican candidate Donald Trump has already repeatedly called the system "rigged" and questioned the fairness of the election. 

Meanwhile in Hillsborough County, workers in the Supervisor of Elections Office have been running tests on their equipment. It's part of the office's attempt at assuring the public that there is nothing rigged about the system.

On Tuesday, machines hummed during test counts of election ballots. The office's canvassing board said all the counts were accurate and signed off on the machines. 

"I don't think people need to be concerned," said Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Office Supervisor Craig Latimer.

Still, there is some concern.

Tampa lawyer Dipa Shah also attended the election tests—on behalf of local Republican Party officials.

"My concern is not so much they’re doing their job because they’re processes are very solid," Shah said. "It’s what happens here once it goes into the cyber world."

Meanwhile, political expert Scott Paine said concerns about cyberhacking and voter fraud are legitimate, though unlikely. 

"If we’re talking about a rigged election, really see the election outcome nationally change by some plot, the probabilities are small," Paine said. "It’s just too complicated to achieve something like that."

Paine added that fraud remains unlikely because every state runs its own election and uses its own technology.

And, in Hillsborough County, none of the the servers or voting machines are connected to the internet.  

"We also have the paper ballot," Latimer said. "That's very important because with a paper ballot we can recreate an election at any time."

This week, a federal judge mandated counties check signatures that don't match with those on file.

Election workers in Hillsborough began mailing affidavits this week to double-check signatures.

Voters in question will be allowed an opportunity to verify their signatures. 

So far in Hillsborough County, the elections office has received 19 ballots with mismatched signatures.