Days after Trump suggests pausing election over security, US House passes $500m for states to do just that
- Reference: 1596487893
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/08/03/us_election_security/
- Source link:
A Friday vote went mostly along party lines as reps decided by a 217-197 margin to pass the 2021 Spending Bill. The bill will now go to the Senate.
The [1]$1.3tr spending package [PDF] is likely to be significantly altered, and possibly delayed, by the Republican-controlled Senate, but the $500m spending package is a step in the right direction, at least.
Specifically, the half-billion goes to the US Election Assistance Commission and will give states money that will be used to replace voting machines that don't provide a paper copy of election results.
The bill declares that states will "replace voting systems which use direct-recording electronic voting machines with a voting system which uses an individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballot which is marked by the voter by hand or through the use of a non-tabulating ballot-marking device or system."
"This week, the President’s [2]reckless comments about our election process have highlighted the importance of ensuring that every state in our union has the resources they need to hold safe and secure elections this November and every election year,” [3]Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL )said on Friday.
With the US election coming up, when better to petition regulators for a controversial way to chill online speech? [4]READ MORE
"We must guarantee that every voter has access to the ballot box, and no one is forced to choose between exercising their right to vote and protecting their health."
Election security has become, unfortunately, a partisan argument over what should be a universally-accepted idea that more should be done to make sure hackers cannot tamper with vote tallies.
Researchers [5]have shown time and again how vulnerable many of the more widely-used voting machines can be to tampering. While there have been no documented cases of elections being rigged by remote hackers, there have been [6]more than [7]a few instances where officials have expressed doubts about the ability of election staff to guard machines.
The use of entirely-digital voting machines has been a particular issue of contention. Security experts have said that such machines are particularly risky because they lack a paper trail that can be used to audit votes. Rather, it has been recommended that states opt for machines that also make use of paper ballots.
Matt Blaze, McDevitt Chair in Computer Science and Law at Georgetown University, is making election security the subject of his keynote address to the Black Hat security conference later this week, and the Department of Homeland Security’s CISA is also giving a talk on the topic. ®
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[1] https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/democrats.appropriations.house.gov/files/FY21%20FSGG%20Bill%20Chairman%27s%20Mark.pdf
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/politics/trump-delay-election-no-authority/index.html
[3] https://quigley.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/quigley-champions-illinois-communities-second-fy21-funding-package
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/28/ntia_section_230/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2018/08/13/defcon_election_vote_hacking/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2017/10/26/voting_server_georgia_wiped/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/18/us_georgia_paperless_voting_security/
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Its too late now
Even if they got the money today they don't have time to buy new voting machines to replace the ones that don't have a paper trail, and get the county people trained on them.
When they got money the first time around (after the 2000 'hanging chads' debacle) to replace old school mechanical voting machines smart people were saying that the touchscreen machines without a paper trail should not be allowed. Should have made that part of the law, then we wouldn't have to pay them to replace those machines a second time.
Re: Its too late now
They have plenty of time and money to buy one machine for each likely democrat voting area. And then ensure it is securely guarded, in a disused lavatory, in a locked file cabinet with a sign say beware of the leopard ?
Re: Its too late now
And that locked-down machine in the lavatory cabinet must be shared with voters in the predominately African-American districts. One per 100,000 potential voters is the suggested ratio. "In-person" voting only; no fraudulent mail-in ballots.
Re: Its too late now
Don't go giving Mitch McConnell ideas!
Re: Its too late now
You may like to check out Greg Palast's thoughts on the subject.
https://www.gregpalast.com/
Well that's reassuring
The upcoming election looks to be just as much of a shit show and the entire Trump presidency has been.
And I'm looking forward to the OHSG refusing to step down and the GOP endlessly pretending they don't know if he can or can't while the Democrates cannot bring themselves to have the fucker arrested for treason to the Constitution.
I've got to remember to stock up on the popcorn - I'm going to need a lot more than I thought.
What a terrible headline! In English, the only possible target of the "just that" is "pausing elections", as "over security" is unarguably a qualifier to the first part of the sentence.
So the headline (in English) is parsed as "Days after Trump suggests pausing election (over security), US House passes $500m for states to do just that", which is factually false and obviously nonsense: the House has not passed anything about pausing elections.
A more accurate headline would be something like "Days after Trump suggests pausing election over security, US House passes $500m for security upgrades" (or something vaguely similar), or better yet "US House passes $500m bill states to improve voting security just days after Trump suggests delaying election".
It all depends
On what Putin decides.