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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs it as easy as 1-2-3 to facilitate the Russians penetrating US voter registration rolls?
or are these three subjects simply coincidences....
Watch your step.
Step one: on the subject of Russia attempting to access voter information rolls in the summer and fall of 2016
In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/us-news/2017/06/13/russian-cyber-hacks-us-electoral-system-far-wider-previously-known
Since the hackers did not get all they wanted, perhaps they took a look at the next step.
Step two: perhaps a surreptitious collaboration can, under cover of a joint cooperation, supposedly be formed to allow those who hack to "work" with those who are unknowingly the target of the attacks.
"The establishment of a working group as reported by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to study how to curb cyber interference in elections in which the Russians would play any role, would be akin to inviting the North Koreans to participate in a commission on nonproliferation," Schiff said in a statement Friday. "It tacitly adopts the fiction that the Russians are a constructive partner on the subject instead of the worst actor on the world stage."
Lavrov's proposal comes amid a new CNN report that cites US intelligence officials who say Russian spies, emboldened by the tepid response to their hacking activities from President Donald Trump and the Obama administration, were increasing their efforts to collect intelligence in America.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-putin-cybersecurity-hacking-syria-lavrov-adam-schiff-2017-7
If publicity snuffs this asinine proposal for the Russians to get what they want, go directly to Step 3.
Step three: If at first one does not completely succeed try a different route:
The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity's vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, sent a letter to each state Wednesday asking a series of questions soliciting feedback about election administration, voter fraud and the integrity of the process. CNN obtained a copy of the letter sent to Maine's secretary of state.
Kobach also requested that each state provide "publicly available voter roll data" as allowed under each state's laws, which could include full names of registered voters, dates of birth, party registration, last four digits of Social Security numbers and voting history. (bold emphasis added)
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/politics/kris-kobach-voter-commission-rolls/index.html
Are these series of events simply coincidences or might the voter registration rolls from the states ultimately end up where one might least expect them, unless of course that is in the hands of hackers.
Think about it.
Sam
Samantha
(9,314 posts)Voltaire2
(13,027 posts)database with party registration to use for voter roll purges. They could use bullshit like multiple entries in different locations to selectively purge voters.
We don't need scary Russian hackers to make this committee something to be seriously concerned about.
Samantha
(9,314 posts)Especially when the concern is Presidential elections. The Constitution delegates the right to conduct Presidential elections to the states, providing each state has its rules outlined in the state constitution prior to the election. So I do believe each state which refuses to turn this data over is within its rights to do so.
This is just my convoluted way of saying something smells rotten.
Thank you for posting on my thread and giving the matter some thought.
Sam
Voltaire2
(13,027 posts)Despite this Kobach crap we desperately need national voting standards, that is why we had the Voting Rights Act that SCOTUS gutted. The states, at least some of them, have been notoriously vile in this regard, and currently the same set of states that have been historically vile are currently being vile again. No, we need comprehensive reform of elections - how we vote, who gets to vote, how votes are both anonymous and secure, what role money plays in political campaigns, how we elect the president, and what constitutes "winning". But this commission is not interested in any of that, they just want to prove Twitler won by removing millions of Democratic voters from the voting rolls.
DFW
(54,372 posts)A close family member who does secret high-tech projects for DARPA and other government agencies told me back in 2002: "give me a laptop and a cell phone, and I'll make any of those voting machines give you any result you want." He's no Republican, so he doesn't do stuff like that, but he said all those systems are extremely vulnerable, and their software hasn't been seriously updated since 2004.
Samantha
(9,314 posts)I have had zero faith in our election results since 2000. It is obvious that if government wanted accurate results, this would have been one of its top priorities. I have been in favor of paper ballots since then, and Maryland has come over to the change. I do know that the ballots are scanned, and some say the scanned results can be altered. Do you know if scanner output can be made impenetrable?
Sam