I was concerned, before and after the 2016 elections, that the Republican Party had continued their tradition of tampering with our electoral infrastructure. I dropped it, because I had even less supporting evidence than I had in 2000, 2004, and 2008. Yesterday, that changed. Russian hackers may have meddled in 21 states, on behalf of their lackeys, Donald Trump and the Republican Reich.
Counties in states like Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia experienced difficulties with their electronic poll books, which made it difficult for registered voters to cast their ballots on Election Day, according to The New York Times. One of the companies that provided the software used in those books, VR Systems, had been penetrated by Russian hackers several months earlier, although there is no evidence that that incident was connected to the technical issues on Election Day.
Nevertheless, that background along with the other Russian election-related chicanery has caused many cybersecurity experts to feel concerned that meddling occurred in the 21 states whose election systems were under attack by the Russian hackers.
According to The New York Times:
Beyond VR Systems, hackers breached at least two other providers of critical election services well ahead of the 2016 voting, said current and former intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information is classified. The officials would not disclose the names of the companies.
Intelligence officials in January reassured Americans that there was no indication that Russian hackers had altered the vote count on Election Day, the bottom-line outcome. But the assurances stopped there…
Inserted from <Salon.com>
Joy Reid on The Rachel Maddow Show, discuss the matter with Susan Greenhalgh from the Verified Voting foundation.
One thing that this clarifies is that computers upon which our electoral integrity depends were communicating with computers in Russia during the 2016 election.
Of course, there is nothing, except for a black,gay,Jewish,liberal dreamer, that Republicans hate more than a fair election. When elections are fair, they lose. Who can forget the infamous hanging chads and the Republican Congressional staffers and campaign workers that attacked Florida election workers with clubs to keep them from recounting the votes?
And just four years later, we had this.
RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!
13 Responses to “Our Insecure Voting”
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I just cannot wrap my head around it that so many people do not care, and so many more people do not know and would not care if they did know. I would willingly bring many of the Founders back from the grave to hear what they would say, notably John Adams and Ben Franklin. Neither was known for being mealy-mouthed.
But, even if we could, how do you shame people who have no shame?
I ask the same. I think people put their head in the sand, because they feel powerless to resolve it with instant gratification.
Ditto, ladies, I ask myself the same things about people! (every day).
Thanks, Tom.
Very sad.
No, one can not shame people who are so cut off from humanity that they have no shame. Once upon a time it was “Sir, have you no decency?’ that toppled the crazed Joe McCarthy. That phrase has been bubbling around n my head, because now, I realize, to claim that a politician has no decency would not only probably fall on deaf ears within the public, but be seen as a badge of honor to some! No, let me correct that: would be seen as a blazing badge of honor to too many!
With all the Gerrymandering, voting (or rather ‘voter’) restriction law, voter enrollment “purging” and the like, one would think the Republicans weren’t in need of any help from Russia to win the presidential election. But they obviously didn’t want to take any chances and accepted any help they could get. The fact that many of the 21 states which were told their election systems were under attack by the Russian hackers never bothered to do any serious investigating of the problem, really tells us a lot.
From the reports most investigations were undertaken in Democratic hot spots by Democrats which then found Democratic votes seriously compromised. The Republicans weren’t so eager to find these “malfunctions” and that really begs the question why not. Wouldn’t it have been logical to blame the Democrats for the hacking – in the tradition of Republicans always blaming Democrats for everything? But they didn’t, so they must have known the hacking was in their favor. But if they didn’t investigate much, how would they have known? Just extrapolating the problems indicated by those Democratic investigations? Perhaps that’s all it took.
And now they’re very happy to keep it that way, it seems. Most of the 21 states didn’t investigate either before the election or after it, or didn’t do much with the findings if they did, probably hoping that new elections will lead to the same favorable outcome for the Republicans. Americans must insist on a complete overhaul of the election system in those 21 states, and preferably in more, but seeing that Republicans benefit from Russian intervention and are willing to accept more if that helps to secure their seats, it’ll have to come mostly from the left. As usual.
Lona, Gerrymandering does not help Republicans in a Presidential election, because all the states Electoral College votes go to the plurality winner.
The Republican party and the Putin regime are the world’s two most powerful enemies of democracy and individual freedom. Hardly a surprise if they’re collaborating.
Amen, my friend!
I have decided to reuse my previous take on voting with a few more added “another way” from a previous comment.
One way to dampen and quench the thirst for power by the GOP is to have a law requiring all citizens to vote. Another is to make voting a federal holiday. Another is to have voting machines to work properly and certified by independent non-partisan group. Another is to have a paper trail and can be looked up, at any time, verified in the records. Another is to do away and eliminate the Electoral College. Another is to do away with gerrymandering, redistricting. Another way is to restore the Voting Rights Act. Another way is to increase mail voting and franking the envelopes. Another way would be automatic registration anytime a person interacts with a government agency. Another way would be to increase the number of voting polls. Another way would be to increase the 435 representatives in-line with the population of USA. Another way would be to forego all electronic computer voting machines and use a strict paper balloting. Another way is, in paper ballet counting, the counters would be certified and licensed to count the paper votes. Another way would be to eliminate the states from using voter enrollment “purging”.
My “favorite” another way would be to eliminate all GOPs from holding any office. lol.
There may be other factors… Can’t think of anymore for “another way”. Anyone care to add to this growing list… lol.
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I agree with all except required voting. Voters would express even more ignorance at the polls.
Thanks all. Hot pooped hugs!
The accepted amount of fraudulent votes is .00005 percent.
That means (if I did my math right) Hillary won by 2.8 million votes. If we use the percent that is accepted that means Hillary got 1900 more votes than she should have. Let’s see 2,800,0000 – 1900 that is still 2,799,100 she won by. I still call that a win.
I like ALL of Jim’s suggestions and want them to be implemented BEFORE 2018! Surely to goodness we can do at least some of that before we trot down this debacle again! It angers me to no end that this has not been done before now! Leave it to Drumpfenfarten to put all this hacking business NO where and NOTHING done about it!