White House delays release of US voting machine study as midterms near, while some of their officials argue that it would undermine voter confidence
White House officials have for months delayed the release of a U.S. government report that outlines what it describes as significant vulnerabilities in the nation's voting machines ahead of the November midterms, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The report, produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, concludes that voting machines could be further safeguarded by, for example, updating their software, the sources said. It does not say the vulnerabilities have led to votes flipping, but examines security gaps in how the machines are used during U.S. elections.
Some White House officials have argued the report could undermine voter confidence, particularly among Republicans. Others have said they do not believe the report goes far enough in supporting President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, the three sources said. Some Democrats said privately they worried Gabbard’s probe into voting machines would be used by the administration to push states to use paper ballots.
Oh, a White House "study"? I'm sure that will be well sourced and follow a strict scientific approach. 🙄
I can't imagine why they wouldn't release it though. Clearly not because they're concerned about voter confidence since it's practically Trump's platform that our elections are rigged. These assholes parrot 2,000 mules bs still.
The Netherlands has a population of about 18m, which is more than any but the four most populous States in America.
Every election here in NL, federal to local, is pure paper ballots and managed by volunteers. And our voter turnout is nearly 20% more than that in America.
I don't see a problem with paper (unless you are FL then whatever.)
It wasn't ever a problem. The problem is the optics. Trump and Co need to muddy the waters constantly in order to always have doubt about elections.
Fair enough.
Why don't they just release it and call it wrong or gay or woke whatever. It's worked for everything else, why bother trying to hide facts now when they can just tell their base to ignore it?
Because if they actually release it they can't either...
(a) fearmonger about a nothingburger in order to undermine confidence in the election, or
(b) wait to spring an actual vulnerability on the public until it's too late to do anything about it in order to undermine confidence in the election (or indeed, to exploit it to undermine the election itself),
...depending on what the contents of the report actually are.
In every case, spreading FUD about a mysterious secret problem serves the ratfuckers' interests more than being forthright does.
Hmm, somebody could leak that report. Calling somebody, it's time.
And that's why electronic voting will never work.
Most “electronic” voting these days prints a duplicate paper ballot that’s used to audit the vote for accuracy.
Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose?
Nope. The intent of electronic voting is to make tabulation faster and more accurate, and to make it easier for people to vote the way they intend without marking errors causing problems. A machine can much more easily increase font size, for example, or increase contrast. It can support a different way of marking for people who have difficulty with the standard.
None of that is incompatible with a physical artifact being produced like a paper ballot does.
That's how my area does it. The electronic machine actually fills out the same paper ballot that you would fill out by hand, but it can mark perfectly and make it easier to read and operate. The machine has no way of knowing who's voting, or making a change that isn't immediately evident. I think the biggest scandal they've had is once, during calibration, one of the machines indicated that the vote for township board of supervisors was to be cast for "the empty space between the list of candidates and the description of the item being voted on".
There are other proposals that would allow people to vote by phone which is solving a problem no one really has, and there are yet others that provides a digital code that allows the voter to verify that their vote was counted and factored into the final tally as they cast it. That one is interesting, but also not in conflict with a paper trail.
No.
As if I have any confidence left in the voters