The WaPo reports that cybersecurity experts staged a mock election “determine what it would take to hack a U.S. election,” and came to the alarming (but totally unsurprising to anyone who’s been paying attention) conclusion that “it would take only one person, with a sophisticated technical knowledge and timely access to the software that runs the voting machines, to change the outcome.”
Got that? One person could change the outcome of an entire election.
Most of the gaping security flaws, found in all three major electronic voting systems used in the US—which are quickly replacing older methods thanks to “billions of dollars of support from the federal government”—could “be overcome by auditing printed voting records to spot irregularities.” But in spite of the federal government’s financial generosity to increase the use of these vulnerable machines, they’ve shown little interest in mandating a verifiable paper trail.
Except for Rep. Rush Holt, (D-NJ).
Now, finally, some Republicans are starting to take notice. Republican Reps. Tom Cole (OK) and Thomas M. Davis III (VA), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, have decided to join Holt “in calling for a law that would set strict requirements for electronic voting machines.” Someone less generous than I might suggest that Cole and Davis only started getting itchy when the polls started showing that Dems had a real possibility of taking the House this November, but I’ll give these two fine gentlemen the benefit of the doubt. Ahem.
Get it done, you Beltway wankers.
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