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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRethugs Just Voted to Eliminate... Agency That Makes Sure Voting Machines Cant Be Hacked
https://www.thenation.com/article/house-republicans-just-voted-to-eliminate-the-only-federal-agency-that-makes-sure-voting-machines-cant-be-hacked/House Republicans Just Voted to Eliminate the Only Federal Agency That Makes Sure Voting Machines Cant Be Hacked
Republicans would make it easier to steal an election by killing the Election Assistance Commission.
By Ari Berman
Today 1:56 pm
In a little-noticed 6-3 vote today, the House Administration Committee voted along party lines to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission, which helps states run elections and is the only federal agency charged with making sure voting machines cant be hacked. The EAC was created after the disastrous 2000 election in Florida as part of the Help America Vote Act to rectify problems like butterfly ballots and hanging chads. (Republicans have tried to kill the agency for years.) The Committee also voted to eliminate the public-financing system for presidential elections dating back to the 1970s.
Thirty-eight pro-democracy groups, including the NAACP and Common Cause, denounced the vote. The EAC is the only federal agency which has as its central mission the improvement of election administration, and it undertakes essential activities that no other institution is equipped to address, says the Brennan Center for Justice.
This move is particularly worrisome given reports that suspected Russian hackers attempted to access voter-registration systems in more than 20 states during the 2016 election. Moreover, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration set up by President Obama in 2014 outlined an impending crisis in voting technology and the Brennan Center found that 42 states used voting machines in 2016 that were at least a decade-old and at risk of failing. The EAC was the agency tasked with making sure these voting systems were both modernized and secure.
The EAC is not a perfect agency. It lacked a quorum of members from 2010 to 2014 and was paralyzed by inaction. Then, last year, its executive director unilaterally approved controversial proof-of-citizenship laws in Kansas, Georgia, and Alabama, which the federal courts subsequently blocked.
But given the threats to American democracy at this moment, the EAC needs to be strengthened, not replaced.
Its particularly ironic that the Trump administration is preparing to launch a massive investigation into nonexistent voter fraud based on the lie that millions voted illegally while House Republicans are shutting down the agency that is supposed to make sure Americas elections are secure. Its more proof of how the GOPs real agenda is to make it harder to vote.
Metatron
(1,258 posts)triron
(21,994 posts)were hacked. By Russians and Repukes. On election day. When DU was taken down.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)progressoid
(49,964 posts)mindem
(1,580 posts)they can be so bold about destroying everything because they know they have future elections locked up. They are swooping in for the kill and nothing will stop them.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)maveric
(16,445 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)Will the news make this into something? Probably not.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)I guess open source and owned by the taxpayers is too much to ask. Somehow.
old guy
(3,283 posts)ghostsinthemachine
(3,569 posts)If I had my way, I'd tear this old building down......
Initech
(100,060 posts)When does it get to that point?
ElementaryPenguin
(7,800 posts)TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)Botany
(70,483 posts)They have to cheat.
Initech
(100,060 posts)MontanaMama
(23,302 posts)It seems the bleeding will never stop.
Once they have the majority in the SCOTUS, it'll be all over but the crying.
briv1016
(1,570 posts)TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)JunkYardDogg
(873 posts)My guess is that the T-Fascists will enact a nationwide voter ID law and at the same time mandate new untouchable (read:un inspectable) voting machines.
The T-Fascists will rule America for the next 30 or 40 years
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)red dog 1
(27,792 posts)..Kansas, Georgia and Alabama, which the federal courts subsequently blocked. (From the OP)
The Executive Director of the EAC is Brian Newby.
(From The Topeka Capital-Journal, October 17, 2016)
"AP Exclusive: U.S. elections chief Brian Newby left behind Kansas scandal"
http://cjonline.com/news-legislature-local-state/2016-10-17/ap-exclusive-us-elections-chief-brian-newby-left-behind
(From the Topeka Capital-Journal article cited above)
"WICHITA -- When Brian Newby took the helm of a federal election agency, he left behind an unfolding scandal in Kansas where he was having an affair with a woman he promoted in his previous job and used her to skirt oversight of their lavish expenses, prompting a local prosecutor to investigate, according to emails obtained by the Associated Press"
So, who recommended Brian Newby to become Executive Director of the Election Assistance Commission?
Kansas Secretary of State, and advisor to Donald Trump, Kris Kobach, that's who.
(From the article cited above)
"Kobach said through his spokeswoman that he was not aware of Newby's affair at the time he reappointed him to the Kansas job and recommended him for the federal position."
Speaking of Donald Trump's "Immigration Advisor," Kris Kobach,
(From today's Topeka Capital-Journal online)
"Kobach spars with ACLU over bill to close 'loophole' for voting without proof of citizenship"
http://cjonline.com/news/state-government/2017-02-07/kobach-spars-aclu-over-over-bill-close-loophole-voting-without-proof
These Republicans make me sick!
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)this on.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Mike Niendorff
(3,459 posts)Seriously, **THIS** is the story of the day.
MDN
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)randr
(12,409 posts)Discredit them to the point that voters demand actual hand counts.
I say hack the piss out of them until they have zero credibility
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)New voting machines will probably be made in Russia.
oasis
(49,370 posts)TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)herding cats
(19,558 posts)This is by design I suspect.
Judi Lynn
(160,515 posts)BSdetect
(8,998 posts)I am just astonished this can even be contemplated.