Ciivil rights and voter protection activists warn that while vote-by-mail would expand access in some cases, it could also disenfranchise vulnerable voting blocs if security measures are not put in place.
'Online and vulnerable': Experts find nearly three dozen U.S. voting systems connected to internet
“We found over 35 [voting systems] had been left online and we’re still continuing to find more,” Kevin Skoglund, a senior technical advisor at the election security advocacy group National Election Defense Coalition, told NBC News.
In a letter obtained by NBC News sent to the EAC on Tuesday, the campaign finance reform nonprofit Free Speech for People and the National Election Defense Coalition asked the agency to look into whether ES&S violated agency regulations by implying that DS200 voting machines with modems are EAC certified.
“ES&S has repeatedly advertised its DS200 with internal modem — a critical component to ES&S’s voting systems — as being EAC certified when, in fact, it is not,” the letter said. “We therefore again respectfully request that EAC investigate and take action to correct this serious issue.”
America Won’t Give Up Its Hackable Wireless Voting Machines
“Connecting for a millisecond is enough to propagate malware through a system,” said Rich DeMillo, a computer science professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a member of Michigan’s election security panel. “Every weak link in the chain of network security is a problem, so opening the door to the internet is just a bad idea in every conceivable scenario.”
The Cybersecurity 202: Lawsuit seeks to force Pennsylvania to scrap these electronic voting machines over hacking fears
“Pennsylvania is going to be under a microscope in 2020. It needs to have voting systems that are demonstrably secure, trustworthy and auditable,” said Susan Greenhalgh, Vice President of Policy and Programs for the National Election Defense Coalition, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit along with Pennsylvania residents.
More than three years after Russia probed election networks across the nation in advance of the 2016 contest, this is just the latest lawsuit seeking to force states and counties to abandon machines that they say don’t provide a sufficient paper trail to make sure votes were tallied correctly.
New Lawsuit Challenges Insecure, Unreliable Voting Machines in Pennsylvania
PHILADELPHIA, PA (Friday, Dec. 13) – A coalition of advocacy groups and voters has filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar alleging that the state’s use of the ExpressVote XL voting machines violates the Election Code and the Pennsylvania Constitution. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the National Election Defense Coalition (NEDC), the Pennsylvania-based Citizens for Better Elections (CBE), and individual Pennsylvania voters. The public interest group Free Speech For People and the BakerHostetler law firm serve as counsel for the plaintiffs.
Expensive, Glitchy Voting Machines Expose 2020 Hacking Risks
Susan Greenhalgh, vice president at the National Election Defense Coalition, said too many election officials have been convinced by vendors and colleagues that spending more money and deploying more technology will result in a better, safer election. “That isn't always true,” said Greenhalgh, whose group advocates for better election security. “These elaborate election systems benefit companies’ bottom line far more than the taxpayers and voters paying for them.”
North Carolina Officials Emphasize Voting Security Efforts
A critic of the states' election systems says North Carolina's public campaign is creating a false sense of security about the strengths of its defenses against malicious actors. Susan Greenhalgh with the advocacy group National Election Defense Coalition said later Thursday in a release that North Carolina election officials are "bringing a knife to a gun fight" by relying on standard election practices to attempt to block foreign hackers.
Facing pressure, McConnell backs money for election security
McClatchyDC.com
Under fire from the left and the right, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday he’ll back a measure to give states another $250 million to upgrade their voting systems to fend off foreign intervention.
McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who has maintained for months that Democratic election security proposals are largely a sham, announced the move on the Senate floor on Thursday, saying he was “proud” to have helped develop the amendment to a federal spending bill.
Conservative activists pressure McConnell on election security
CNN.com
Conservative activists are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to support funding to upgrade voting machines across the country that critics argue are out of date and insecure.
Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and Freedomworks President Adam Brandon issued a call Wednesday for Congress to allocate additional money for election equipment upgrades and to mandate that elections use paper ballots that can be used for an independent audit.
Senate Republicans must lead with cheap, effective measures to secure US elections
WashingtonExaminer.com
On Election Day 2016, President Trump offered an unequivocal statement on how our elections should be run: “There’s something really nice about the old paper ballot system,” he told Fox News. “You don’t worry about hacking.”
Trump’s view is increasingly becoming the consensus position. There’s growing agreement that the United States needs action to ensure verifiable elections with paper ballots and audits — as well as to patch cybersecurity vulnerabilities and to upgrade dangerously old election infrastructure.
Secretaries of state plead for more money for election security
Interviews with 10 secretaries of state, conducted by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit at the annual summer conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State held this year in Santa Fe, New Mexico, found unanimity across party lines.
When asked whether their states needed more money for election security, one secretary after another answered in the affirmative.
Citing election security, advocates seek to force Pa. to reexamine new voting machines
Organized by election-security advocates, 200 Pennsylvania voters filed a petition Tuesday seeking to force the Pennsylvania Department of State to reconsider its approval of a touchscreen voting machine selected by Philadelphia and other counties.
Those machines, the ExpressVote XL from election mega-vendor Election Systems & Software (ES&S), have security flaws and do not comply with the state Election Code, the voters say in their petition submitted by certified mail and email Tuesday. It was signed by voters from Allegheny, Bucks, Delaware, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia, and Westmoreland Counties.