Tiny cosmic particles can have serious impacts on Earth, causing election votes to be miscounted, planes to free-fall and computers to reboot, scientists say.

1) Cosmic particles can have serious impacts on Earth by hitting electronic devices

2) The particles can cause components in electronics to burn out and malfunction

3) This interference has caused planes to free-fall and election votes miscounted

These cosmic particles can hit electronic devices on Earth, which can cause components to burn out and cause malfunctions.  

Cosmic particles come from cosmic rays from outside our solar system. They crash into the Earth's atmosphere creating a range of particles, including protons, electrons, X-rays and gamma-rays that can penetrate aircraft.

These cosmic particles constantly hit Earth, and can cause bits of information in electronics to change.

When a machine malfunctions in this way, it's called a Single Event Upset (SEU).

These changes can be enough to cause a computer to freeze and reboot, affecting the outcome of computerized elections.

They can also cause other problems such as causing planes to suddenly come out of autopilot mode.  

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4235790/Cosmic-particles-freeze-computers-change-elections.html