In my initial post on the US being in a cyberwar with Russia, on 26 July 2016, I wrote (emphasis mine):
One of the real concerns going forward, apart from embarrassing email chains with personally identifying information (PII) being posted on Wikileaks, is not just that Russian Intelligence can get in and look around and take information out of these systems in the US, but what happens if they decide to mess with what’s there? Voter registration information, voter donation information, electoral results, and more are all stored electronically. The next attack may not be interested in embarrassing staffers and causing a few days of reporting about what they wrote. Rather it might seek to remove voters from the rolls or change the reported results of an election in specific locations before they can be reported. And since our system is decentralized, securing all of it is going to be difficult and expensive.
Well what do you know?
JUST IN: Senate Intel: Russia-linked hackers were in position to “alter or delete voter registration data” in 2016 https://t.co/LzbPWHMZSr pic.twitter.com/GoxKV1mStL
— The Hill (@thehill) May 9, 2018
From The Hill (emphasis also mine):
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released the unclassified version of its investigation into Russian cyberattacks on digital U.S. voting systems ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The report finds that Moscow conducted an “unprecedented, coordinated cyber campaign” against the nation’s voting infrastructure. Through its investigation, the committee found that Russia-linked hackers were in a position to “alter or delete voter registration data” in a small number of states before the 2016 vote.
“In a small number of states, Russian-affiliated cyber actors were able to gain access to restricted elements of election infrastructure,” the report states. “In a small number of states, these cyber actors were in a position to, at a minimum, alter or delete voter registration data; however, they did not appear to be in a position to manipulate individual votes or aggregate vote totals.”
“The Committee saw no evidence that votes were changed and found that, on balance, the diversity of our voting infrastructure is a strength,” the report says. “However, the Committee notes that a small number of districts in key states can have a significant impact in a national election.”
Going forward all US election systems – voter registrations, voter rolls, recording of the actual vote, etc – must all be air gapped. They have to be either set up or backed up in such a way that the master information is only accessible via a secured or classified network – not the every day unclassified Internet. Additionally, every vote cast should be pen and paper. And non-partisan observers should be present during all voting and tallying and reporting of the vote totals. And all three of these activities should also be filmed so there is a record of voting, tallying, and reporting. Finally, there should be secured paper backups of everything. If we do these simple things we can safeguard and protect the integrity of our election systems and have faith in the outcome of our elections. Or we can have more 2016s.
Update at 11:30 PM EDT
Here’s the link to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence unclassified report.
Stay frosty!
Open thread.
PaulWartenberg
sadly, three things:
1) what you suggest costs money that Republicans refuse to spend.
2) what you suggest encourages better voter turnout that Republicans don’t want to see.
3) what you suggest requires leadership that Republicans never have.
Kraux Pas
Do we know which states they had access to the voter roles? Any credible reports of eligible voters being turned away to vote?
trollhattan
My (CA) county is shifting to 100% mail paper ballots beginning with the June primary. I know we’re not the sort of place that’s “getable” for targeted voter fraud but suburban congressional seats can turn on a mere few hundred votes so better safe than sorry. I’m sure Kansas will be up next.
Kraux Pas
@PaulWartenberg: It’s not even that Republicans are unwilling to spend the money and energy to prevent this sort of vote tampering, this is of a piece with Republicans’ strategy of vote tampering that goes back decades.
Patricia Kayden
When can we do over the 2016 election? It appears that it was hacked. This should be alarming to everyone regardless of political affiliation.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
Absolutely
Emma
And here I was hoping for a decent night’s sleep. And it’s only Tuesday. Really? Only Tuesday?
Adam L Silverman
@Kraux Pas: I haven’t been able to actually find the unclassified Senate Intel report. It is not currently posted on their website. Once I find it, I’ll post it. And read it.
Yarrow
@Emma: It’s Infrastructure Week!
Adam L Silverman
@Emma: Are you enjoying Infrastructure Week? Having a good time?
Corner Stone
“How do you do, fellow all American owners of companies that gave $500K to Michael Cohen?”
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: this infrastructure week contains my birthday!
Yarrow
@Patricia Kayden: You’re absolutely right. Everyone regardless of political affiliation should be alarmed and want the Russian involvement in our elections investigated.
Corner Stone
Will there be an Executive Time tweetstorm? Or no?
Omnes Omnibus
What states had voting machines linked to the Net?
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: Happy Birthday! Are you doing anything exciting to celebrate?
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: depression!
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Happy Infrastructure Birthday!
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: Hmmm….that doesn’t sound all that exciting. Sending good thoughts that it’s not a bad episode, is short and you feel better soon.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: The voting machines are not connected to the Internet. The computers with the voter rolls and registrations and that contain the tallies of the elections are.
As for voting machines:
https://www.verifiedvoting.org/which-voting-machines-can-be-hacked-through-the-internet/
Much more at the link.
Also,
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/03/do-your-voting-machines-connect-to-the-internet-us-senator-ask-ceo/
Also, more at that link too!
tobie
This is mealy-mouthed language for a matter this important. “They did not appear to be in a position.” What the heck is that supposed to mean? Shouldn’t the Senate committee investigate this? Maybe they could do an audit in Senator Burr’s state of NC for openers.
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: I had a bad migraine yesterday that knocked me off kilter. Maybe tomorrow will be better!
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: But the results at the lowest level can be added up. And then compared with the alleged totaled. No one has made that argument yet. And it shouldn’t come from a blog that is speculating.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman:
Progress!
lamh36
If this was any other adminstration, I’d be more confident that what you listed to combat the situation and ensure stability in the future, would be done, but we all know Chump ain’t doing shit unless it’s something Obama did first so he can dismantle it…smh
barb 2
WA state voters also vote by mail-in ballot. No long lines and broken voting machines — all the sneaky tricks used by the cheating GOP. It is cruel and sadistic to force voters to stand in line for hours — and then toss out their votes for bogus reasons.
Yes, we are at war — and we know who the traitors are.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: In case you didn’t see this part. I added it after I hit post on the comment.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/03/do-your-voting-machines-connect-to-the-internet-us-senator-ask-ceo/
Mike in NC
Forget about Infrastructure Week. I want Indictment Week.
B.B.A.
@Major Major Major Major: We should bring back the big old-time machines with the gears and levers. Those can’t be hacked without waking up the whole neighborhood.
Raoul
I assume the Kobach commission was intended to be the bread and circus while the Russians rummaged around in our state systems. We may have to go back to paper and pen ballots and blue thumbs.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Well, we may as well give up then. I certainly wasted my time working for the GAB (I guess it is okay because i got a paycheck).
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Yep.
HinTN
@Major Major Major Major:
(Happy Birthday)^4
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: When have you ever seen me advocate giving up? We have a problem. The fixes to it aren’t all that hard. All it takes is replacing elected officials who are willing to make them and some commitment to holding their feet to the fire to do so, so to speak.
Kristine
Jesus, this day.
bluehill
I remember thinking at the time of the first post that the Russians didn’t need to hack every system in the country. Given our electoral system they just needed to target some critical ones in the swing states. As it turns out, they were able to target the voters via facebook and twitter, which in retrospect helped clarify to me Bannon’s pre-election comment about suppressing the dem vote. Now that we know the Russians had a backup plan in place, it shows how well planned and coordinated this operation was and how depressingly timid our response has been.
Major Major Major Major
@B.B.A.: or just use a fucking pen yeah
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: Migraine’s suck. Hopefully tomorrow is better for you.
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know if you remember this article I posted in December 2016 about Russian traffic on small town municipal websites in Wisconsin.
In this particular situation voter rolls weren’t on the websites these people were managing (another example is in the article), but in other towns who knows.
frosty
@Major Major Major Major: Happy road bridge tunnel dam waterworks wastewater sewer landfill storm drain power plant transmission line birthday!!
Mnemosyne
For the 2016 election, LA County set up webcams so you could actually watch County employers verifying ballots (we use Inkavote aka Scantron ballots). It was not riveting TV, but I appreciated that it was there and peeked in a few times.
B.B.A.
@Yarrow: But did they hit crucial Waukesha County?
efgoldman
@Corner Stone:
I think he’s using the time to abrade off the horrible spray tan.
Adam L Silverman
@Kraux Pas: Found it!!!
https://www.burr.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/RussRptInstlmt1-%20ElecSec%20Findings,Recs2.pdf
I’ll add it up top.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
LA is basically going to set up “voting centers” instead of polling places that will be open for the 11 days prior to each election and on Election Day. You will also be able to drop off your mail-in ballot.
This is far preferable to the current system where you have to drive out to friggin’ Norwalk to early vote.
Yarrow
@B.B.A.: LOL. This article didn’t cover crucial Waukesha County. They covered the City of Ashland, Bayfield County and Madeline Island Chamber of Commerce. You know, the big time.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: If elections are fixed, we are done.
Me, I don’t believe the elections are fixed, but many will. Based on what you said.
Darkrose
OT: From the transcript of the Secretary of State’s remarks to the traveling press today:
It’s the War on Competence.
NotMax
Have been saying this for quite a while (including here): keep an eye on Venezuela. Dolt 45 administration inflating the vituperation.
Will Venezuela now suffer the fate of being used as an ‘example’ for Iran of U.S. foreign policy, and possibly martial, muscle?
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
Ooh, Ooh!!! Happy Happy Birthday for you, grasshopper. My last one was 67… that’s about 30 too many!
Have a nice day of it, there in San Francisco, place of many good places to eat out. And legal botanicals!
efgoldman
@Omnes Omnibus:
Some people refuse to believe that a confluence of pretty much unheard of small events could lead to the result we got, but it did.
I know you don’t like LGM, but Lemieux has had an excellent handle on this for months.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I didn’t say they were fixed. I said, back in July 2016, that my worry is that they could be fixed. The Senate Intel report today backs up that concern. You then asked for sources/citations showing that voting machines could be hacked via the Internet. I provided it. That doesn’t mean they were. It just means they can be. Which is why I included them in my recommendations for fixing the problem/potential problem.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
Holding their feet to fire…… hmmmmm, this sounds like a promising start.
Maybe some other body part, one desired by almost everyone to be in useable condition. Hmmmmm, I am getting an idea here on how to make politicians better behave themselves.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: Actually that area tends D, if it was discouraged by Russians — Jesus.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I just hate threaded comments.
MobiusKlein
@tobie: It is not mealy mouthed to say “Appears” if that is the best current information.
It is hard to definitively rule out certain tampering. E.g. replace the log files with versions lacking certain lines.
It would be odd if hackers cleaned logs of data manipulation, but were sloppy enough to leave logs of basic access. But possible.
PhoenixRising
@Omnes Omnibus: well, that depends on what you mean by ‘fixed’.
This report tells us that hackers (Russian? paid by…?) could have changed the results of the election indirectly, by changing the voters who could participate. Added to the many instances of Jim Crow policy that were done in plain sight by GOP state and local officials, well, I’m not seeing evidence that this last election wasn’t fixed. I want to be comforted too but the clear meaning of this report is that precincts and cities, perhaps states, may have been rigged and we will never know it.
If you mean ‘changed votes’, you have to recognize that it’s not important to change votes inside the machine. That’s risky and likely to get caught, compared to changing the demographics of register voters.
If hackers were in a position to take every 3rd Garcia off voter rolls in Maricopa Co, AZ–that right there may have determined the outcome.
What about every 6th voter with [LASTNAME]=*ez in Michigan? How about ALL[FIRSTNAME]=DeAndr* in Milwaukee?
‘Voter registration deletion’ or alteration in states that require a photo ID verifying address may have determined the election. Is the IC report intending to reveal which states were subject to this potential tampering?
You don’t have to hack or alter vote totals to rig an election.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Happy happy.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I just went back and reread the post up top. I didn’t mention voting machines in it at all. So I really don’t know where you fixed on that as part of either what I was worried about or what I think needs to be done to fix the problem.
Darkrose
@Major Major Major Major: Sorry to hear about the migraine–they suck.
Happy Birthday x4!
Ruckus
@MobiusKlein:
The russians don’t seem to be all that concerned about being caught, they leave a fairly visible trail, if one is looking at all. Almost like they want to be caught. Because that might show that the west, especially the US is incapable of actual free elections. Also if they screwed with places that might very well have favored drumpf in the first place, how many of those are willing to have secure and reasonable voting in the first place? And how many of them refused to look at the results as anything but pure?
Kraux Pas
@Adam L Silverman: Didn’t find the answers I was looking for there, but it will be interesting to see what will be done with the recommendations. I anticipate not much from the White House. However, it’s heartening to see that states have been accepting any help that has been offered thus far.
Steve in the ATL
@NotMax: Venezuela is so fucked that it would actually be a challenge for trumpistas to make it worse
Omnes Omnibus
@PhoenixRising: And this wouldn’t be caught by the pre- and post-election audits of the machines?
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know the area. I just read the article at the time and it stayed with me because of the small town nature of it. People may think smaller towns and cities were not involved, but this article shows they were. I wonder in how many other small towns and cities across the country this sort of thing also happened.
lamh36
Ok…OT a bit…but just had to say, I’m supposed to be going to bed, but nope…I’ve been watching Black Panther on digital video….and now I’m caught up in the bonus features!
I swear to ya’ll I’ve been watching the digital video like it’s the frist time…and even on my flat screen same feels as in the theatre…digital copy came out today, and the hard copy DVD/Blu Ray comes out on the 14th I think
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: The California Voters’ Choice Act. Sacramento County and a few others have opted in. I did a screencast on it for my instructional design class last semester, and it’s pretty cool. You can mail in your ballot, use a county drop box, or go to any county polling station–not tied to precinct any more–and drop off your ballot there. Or vote on the day of.
Adam L Silverman
Apparently it was a busy day!
Steve in the ATL
@lamh36: if I may be pedantic (and just try to stop me!), it’s “y’all” not “ya’ll” as it is a contraction of “you all”. You’re in good company, though—John Grisham makes the same mistake and apparently his editors are either Yankees or are afraid of him.
Sorry—back to Black Panther!
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Happy (early?) birthday! ?
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Comment 20. Your source said hackable, My experience in my state says that is not the case. I may be wrong. It may vary from state to state,
PhoenixRising
@Omnes Omnibus: …how would removing voters from the database be reflected in audits? Of what machines? Change a database, change the ‘last opened’ tag, and get out. I could do it, and I SELL software, I don’t CODE software.
J R in WV
Adam,
Thanks for gathering this voting information for everyone. I’ve seen similar information in trade publications as long ago as the early 2000s. And I ask myself, why this urge to computerize something as simple as voting on ballots and counting them…?!!
When I was a kid, we helped at the newspaper, which did it’s own totalizing as precincts reported counts into the courthouse, reporters at the courthouse called those subtotals into the newsroom, and we used old fashioned adding machines to generate bigger totals for districts and the counties in our circulation area, around 11 counties all told.
It took all night, and at the end of that process the county totals and the newsroom totals needed to be really close, like right on the money. And this was back in the days when elections were famously not that clean here.
Anyway, counting and adding seems to be foolproof, and very difficult to hack. Even if you don’t use scanners to add things up. Why make it both more diffcult, less transparent, and completely not-auditable? So it’s easier to cheat is the only reason my systems analyst mind ever came up with.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Pedantic, you say?
In America, it would be written thus: a contraction of “you all.”
;)
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Got it, but that was only to answer your question from comment 15:
I didn’t mention them in the actual post. I was just trying to answer your question from comment 15. That was it on my end.
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, I never heard you suggest ‘giving up’ either. I feel I’ve heard this accusation before…where could it have been…
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow:
Okay.
Mnemosyne
@bluehill:
Like perhaps the four crucial “firewall” states of WI, MI, PA and OH? ?
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Okay, I may be on a bit of a hair-trigger about WI wrt this election. My bad.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
I still believe that the test case for 2016 was the state elections in Kansas. The ‘ results’ never added up to pre-election polling. Had suppressive voter ID laws that could be the scapegoat to ” Understanding” how the polls could be wrong.
NotMax
Had to drive someone to the eye doctor and back way too early today (non-emergency). While in town noticed that regular gasoline is now at or above $4.
After Dolt 45’s stupidity today, that”s bound to go up, up up.
Raoul
We are in a very strange spot as a country. Some states are improving things like motor-voter, automatic registration, etc, and some states have excellent SOSs and paper ballots and post-election audits.
And others (is it still 15?) have touchscreen voting with no receipt and dubious ‘recount’ process. I know a good system because we have one in MN – but only because voters pay attention. We had a pretty well contested election for SOS last time. The GOP is hot to fvk up Minnesota’s quality elections.
I am pretty confident Steve Simon is busy at work on data protections.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: No worries. This stuff gives me the heebie jeebies too! Especially given who’s running DHS.
Adam L Silverman
@TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate): I think a wire just got crossed. I think we’ve got it sorted out.
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
@Omnes Omnibus: SEE??? Sometimes, it happens.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: Possibly. I know a statistician at one of the universities there is still suing to get the data to run the analysis to prove or disprove your theory, which is also hers.
jonas
@Yarrow:
Yeah, you’d think so, but everyone won’t be.
rikyrah
The ZEGK is at it again ?
https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status/994053747704770561?s=19
GregB
I think a name that sums up scumbag Trump needs to be settled upon and repeated over and over.
Cheating Don. He cheated on his wives, his businesses and he cheated the shit out of the election.
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
They just announced it today and will be doing community meetings to determine where the centers should be.
Are you still at SJSU? G finishes in December and is up for a metadata librarian position.
Platonailedit
@rikyrah: The cowardly corrupt traitorous scum will kiss the traitor’s ass till the last second of his cowardly departure.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Have you had your CT scan yet?
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: He’s not going to get what he wants this time:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/risk-to-intelligence-source-who-aided-russia-investigation-at-center-of-latest-showdown-between-nunes-and-justice-dept/2018/05/08/d6fb66f8-5223-11e8-abd8-265bd07a9859_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.81d4e67c365c
Much more at the link.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
I’m actually sitting in the lobby of the center waiting for them to bring me a CD of the scan so I can bring it to my doctor. It was short and boring, unlike the dental CT I got a couple of years ago. With that one, the machine played “Moonlight Sonata” while it was scanning me. ?
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: I’m still in; finishing up the semester. Assuming my thesis gets approved and I can get it researched and written, I should be graduating next May.
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
Nice! G took the lazy way and is doing an e-port instead of a thesis. ? He briefly considered a thesis, but he wanted to finish sooner rather than later.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Do you get to see your doctor today? Glad the scan was uneventful.
NotMax
@Yarrow
Unless the Russians fiddled with it.
:)
sukabi
@Corner Stone: Tweetstorm or thorazine intervention? We’re getting real close to those close to him trying to shut him up.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
No, I need to make a follow-up appointment. ?
Yarrow
Sheesh, these people are slow.
They didn’t just TRY to directly finance Trump and the RNC, the DID directly finance Trump and the RNC. Gah.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: That’s a pain. Another medical appointment. More time. I wish it were easier.
efgoldman
@Omnes Omnibus:
Understood. You can read his original posts and ignore the comments attached thereto. He’s a very sharp guy.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Aw, no! I guess no news is.. a lack of bad news, though.
efgoldman
@Steve in the ATL:
Why? They’ve done it with everything else.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman:
Conspiracy theories have to be simple since half of their appeal is that they’re less fucking complicated than reality.
@efgoldman: My first thought was “hey, at least they haven’t caused a massive toilet paper shortage,” but then I remembered Puerto Rico.
Doug R
Repost from dying thread: @Adam L Silverman: No need for the Bears to get too Fancy.
Just change enough details on a few thousand registrations so it clashes with Crosscheck in about 4 states-say Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Floriduh and there you go.
No One of Consequence
@Kristine: Thank you. Your perfect three words have given me hope.
No bullshit.
Really.
Thank you,
– NOoC
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: I was originally going to do the e-port, but when I took my research methods class that focused on history, I came up with an idea for a thesis on Vivian Harsh, the first African American and the first woman to head a Chicago Public Library branch back in 1932. I just have to manage the anxiety enough to submit the proposal, which has been difficult this semester. I’ve got health insurance again, though, so hopefully once I’m back on my meds, I’ll be able to move forward.
NineDragonSpot
@Major Major Major Major: Happy Birthday, MMMM
Major Major Major Major
@NineDragonSpot: couple more hours!
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
That sounds really cool! Chicago is very proud of its history, so you should be able to find a lot of people willing to help you out. Chicagoans as a whole are much nicer than New Yorkers or Angelenos.
(Yes, I’m from the Chicago suburbs (aka Chicagoland) so I’m a little biased. ?)
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus:
If elections are fixed than there is only one way to correct that and it won’t be pretty.
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: And fortunately they are (for the most part) not.
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: :D I’m from Chicago, which is what first drew me to this topic. Harsh’s archives and papers are at the Woodson Regional Library on 95th and Halsted, where I used to do research back in high school.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah, really. Just sayin’.
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
I forgot that about you. ? I’m from the North Shore, so I usually try to say “near Chicago” so people stop asking me if I know their cousin who lives in Centralia. Illinois is a big state, y’all, so, no, I don’t.
JAFD
Grootings from New Jersey !
“non-partisan observers should be present during all voting and tallying and reporting of the vote totals” Agreed.
Got another ribbon yesterday, “County Board of Elections / Election Official / District Board Worker”. We’re supposed to be there at 5:15 AM to get things ready for polls to open at 6, check and sign the results after the polls close at 8 PM, and straighten up so firemen can put their engine inside again. Also supposed to attend a two-hour training class every two years.
Is difficult finding people for this, even in NJ where ‘district board workers’ get paid $200 for the day. Finding ‘non-partisan people’ who’re willing to spend Election Day in polling places, in the company of partisan folk checking vote totals and which of their voters needs rides or kid minders, visits from elected officials and candidates and reporters – if you know of any such nonpartisan people, mayhaps we can have them cloned ;-)
And early voting and extended voting hours will put more demands on the diligent and public-spirited people whom you want doing this. (I’m not one of them, I just need the $$$)
I’ve quite often said “All problems are solvable – all you need are time, money, and competent and dedicated people. But don’t construct solutions assuming that the third of these is an unlimited costless resource.”
I’m going to hit ‘post comment’ here even tho I ain’t had my second cuppa, Apologies to Mr. Silverman, whom I respect, if this is a rant, wanted to get it off my chest while fresh…
Hope y’all celebrated the 73rd anniversary of V-E day yesterday.
Lee
@Kraux Pas: I’m late to the thread & I’ll answer this without reading the thread.
This news about access to voter rolls is not exactly new news. We had reports right after the election and I had several conversations about it.
At least in Texas you are not turned away. What they do is if you are not on the roll (or have any sort of issue) you get to cast a provisional ballot. Then if the race is close they start looking at those provisional ballots. They check to see if you are actually a valid voter and then count your vote. If they decide you are not a valid voter they don’t count your vote and they do not notify you.
In every single election I’ve seen someone have an issue at the ballot box. So someone might go ahead and cast that vote and then never find out if it was counted or not.
Now to read the rest of the thread….