they knew that the smallest glitch in Election Day technology could become fodder for conspiracy theorists

The firm had offshored part of the work

A programmer had hard-coded the Ukrainian national anthem into the database

This was “a disaster averted,” said the person familiar with the probe, citing the risk that hackers could have exploited the first two issues to surreptitiously edit the state’s voter rolls, or use them and the presence of the Ukrainian national anthem to stoke election conspiracies.

Golly, I sure am glad to hear it's all just a conspiracy theory and not conspiracy fact. Someone might have gotten the wrong idea...

There is little oversight of the supply chain that produces crucial election software, leaving financially strapped state and county offices to do the best they can with scant resources and expertise.

I bet soon enough it will have the best fortifications "guardrails" they can create for it.