September 17, 2017
By Pam Fessler
One of the public's unanswered questions (click here) about Russia's attempts to break into election systems last year was which states were targeted. On Friday, states found out.
The Department of Homeland Security said earlier this year that it had evidence of Russian activity in 21 states, but it failed to inform individual states whether they were among those targeted. Instead, DHS authorities say they told those who had "ownership" of the systems — which in some cases were private vendors or local election offices....
Americans also know they can trust the FBI. I rather the mechanical voting machines. They were clean and accurate and easy to use. What could be better?
I think the 'fear factor' in American elections can be handled as well. The intelligence services spoke to the electorate before the 2016 elections about the issues concerning Russian involvement in the election, but, the underlying momentum overpowered those warnings. I think it prudent the intelligence agencies have a better relationship with the electorate, including, an announcement about their activities linked to the change in momentum of the Clinton campaign by James Comey.
There needs to be standards set and carried out at least weekly for national security issues during elections. These standards should result in minimally a weekly announcement. These announcements should come from a national security person and carried by all media networks. If there is weekly propaganda, it can be diffused and RETURNED to the facts stated by the agencies. It is important Americans have good information going into the voting booth, (as well as a voting booth that is secure and works) and not inflammatory information. I think most Americans would want that.
September 19, 2017
...According to the FBI, as many as 39 states had their election systems scanned or targeted by Russia. There's no evidence of votes changed. But given the stakes, some state agencies that run elections are trying to curb any further interference prior to mid-term elections in November.
Their tool of choice: Ensuring systems can't be hacked, and if they are, making those breaches immediately obvious. To do this, some are taking the unusual move of rewinding the technological dial, debating measures that would add paper ballots — similar to how many Americans voted before electronic voting started to become widespread in the 1980s.
A week ago Virginia announced it would no longer use touch-screen-only voting machines after a hack-a-thon in Las Vegas showed how easily they could be breached.
States with electronic-only voting machines want to add a paper back-up that would mandate, for every electronic ballot cast, creation of a paper version that could be counted, and presumably, not easily altered. ...
