PA Online Voter Registration Reaches 500K Users

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Pennsylvania's online voter registration system has logged its 500,000th user. Meanwhile, a top elections official is reassuring the public about the integrity of the upcoming election.

Pennsylvania's online voter registration system was launched a year ago in August. The fact that it has already reached half a million users would seem to heighten concerns about election security in the computer era.

Marian Schneider -- deputy secretary for elections and administration in the Department of State -- says Pennsylvania is working with federal officials to ensure the security of systems that are linked to the Internet.

But she says local voting systems are not:

"There's a big difference between applications and systems that are connected to the Internet, and those that are not. And people should understand that the precinct voting systems in Pennsylvania are isolated from the networks… they are not connected to the Internet."

Schneider believes the risk of any election hacking is very, very low.