COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Treo and a magnet would be tools enough to tamper with the workings of Ohio's electronic voting machines, the political swing state's top elections official said Friday.

Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner based the observation on a $1.9 million federally funded study of electronic voting systems in the state by corporate and academic scientists.

VIDEO: Watch Brunner's News Conference

"To put it in everyday terms, the tools needed to compromise an accurate vote count could be as simple as ... using a magnet and a personal digital assistant," Brunner said in a statement preceding her scheduled release of the report.

In light of the findings, Brunner is making several recommendations, including replacement of machines, to Gov. Ted Strickland and the state Legislature. It is unclear how quickly machines could be replaced and what the ramifications are for the 2008 presidential election.

Brunner, who succeeded controversial Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, called the findings startling and said the review revealed "critical security failures" that could affect the integrity of elections in the state.

Some of the tests seeking to hack the voting machines built by Election Systems & Software, Hart Intercivic and the former Diebold, now Premier Election Solutions, required high levels of sophistication, but others did not, she said.

Reviewers said voting was potentially vulnerable on all three companies' machines, Premier and Hart machines did not protect properly against "malicious insiders," ES&S machines did not protect against improper access to election data and Premier machines did not adequately protect voters' privacy.

The report does not address how likely it is someone would attempt to tamper with the machines, which are operated under the supervision of 88 county boards of elections and citizens who volunteer as poll workers.

"It's a testament to our state's boards of elections officials that elections on the new HAVA (Help America Vote Act) mandated voting systems have gone as smoothly as they have in light of these findings," Brunner said in the statement.

In the report, Brunner acknowledged that computers are used every day to communicate, transact financial business and solve complex problems. But she said electronic voting machines don't meet computer industry security standards.

ONN's Dan Weist will have reaction later today on ONN.

For a complete look at the reporter, check out the Ohio Secretary of State website.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press and the Ohio News Network.