Worried About Election Hacking? Theres a Fix for That

[L. Coyote]

Link to tweet

............. But regardless of what anyone thinks about what may or may not have happened in 2016, the intensifying discussion about last year’s election reminds Americans of the extent to which officials have failed to assure that elections in the United States are conducted openly, honestly, and without interference by domestic or foreign partisans. There is an urgent need to protect voting and elections and democracy itself — officially and permanently.

To that end, congressmen Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Hank Johnson of Georgia have introduced groundbreaking legislation — the Securing America’s Future Elections (SAFE) Act — that proposes to safeguard US elections from cyber threats and interference by permanently classifying the integrity and security of elections as a component of the country’s critical infrastructure.

Arguing that that the United States needs “a comprehensive approach to secure our election process from start to finish,” Rep. Pocan, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, says that “By making our elections a top national security priority, we can ensure cybersecurity standards for voting systems are upgraded and require paper ballots with all electronic voting machines. One thing Democrats and Republicans should agree on is that we should be doing everything in our power to guarantee the sovereignty of our county and the integrity of our elections. This bill will do just that.”

The changes that Pocan and his fellow House members propose would place elections systems in the same category as other critical infrastructure such as the power grid, the banking system, and essential utilities. At the same time, the SAFE Act protects against cyber threats by requiring the use of better voting machines that provide paper ballots. And it requires random audits of ballots to thwart wrongdoing and to assure against malfunctions.

This is not the final answer to concerns about election integrity ......................

[Squinch]

1. The Republicans won't like this. They can't win if they can't cheat.

[Girard442]

2. Imagine the ads to sell the idea that election's AREN'T critical infrastructure.

[DefenseLawyer]

3. Paper ballots. n/t

[wasupaloopa]

4. Everyone should vote by mail. No machines to hack. Also you can vote as soon as you get your mail

in ballot. You have a few weeks to vote, plenty of time to review all the campaign literature. No long lines to wait in.