US move to secure election systems meets criticism

Associated Press ^ | January 9, 2017 | By TAMI ABDOLLAH

[Brad from Tennessee]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A last-minute decision by the Obama administration to designate election systems as critical infrastructure drew intense criticism from state and federal elections organizations on Monday.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced the move Friday with 30 minutes' notice to the National Association of Secretaries of State and U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent bipartisan federal agency that develops voluntary voting guidelines and certifies voting systems.

Officials at both agencies are criticizing the department for what they said was a failure to work with state officials to fully answer their questions about the designation before making the change.

"We're having trouble understanding exactly what they're going to do, that we're not already doing," Connecticut Secretary of State Denise W. Merrill, who heads the national secretaries association, told The Associated Press. "States were already doing much of this (security work) themselves using very different products. . ."

[Major Matt Mason]

"We're having trouble understanding exactly what they're going to do, that we're not already doing,"

Why, fixing elections so Democrats don't lose, you silly goose.

[webheart]

They can pretend to secure the electoral system, but they won’t let us require voter ID. It is another bureaucratic power grab at the Federal level. It won’t hurt right away, but in 8 or 12 years, it will be a means to completely disenfranchise anyone who is not a Democrat.

[thinden]

Put another way: soros wants more security on the election system.

[hal ogen]

Reverse this power grab in 9 days. LIB fascist federalists.

[hal ogen]

Reverse this power grab in 9 days. LIB fascist federalists.

[funfan]

Can this be un done?

[pepsionice]

Without clearing the voting lists and starting fresh, allowing voter ID, or making duplication voting impossible.....then it’s just fake work. It means nothing.

[radu]

I emailed several in our General Assembly when I first read about this. I hope a bunch of them will confront our idiot governor, who just looooooves federal money, and SoS and tell them NO WAY IN H***!

[publius911]

TAMI ABDOLLAH ???
Seriously?

Elections are the exclusive purview of the states.
Tami, show us where, in the enumerated powers of the Constitution (Our Constitution, not the trash queeran) the executive is empowered to have any say whatsoever in elections.

Sorry. Just go away quietly, while you can.

[a fool in paradise]

This after the DHS attempted to hack Georgia’s election systems and Obama assured us that the election couldn’t be hacked.

Red diaper doper babies are gonna revolt, even if they become prezzydunce.

[DYngbld]

Virginia has a voter ID requirement, and yet Northern VA still manages to find trunk loads of Dem votes.

I like the idea of a required voter card that you surrender with you vote, that gets mailed back to you official address after the election. Not a fool proof plan but better then what we have.

[alpo]

To paraphrase Stalin:

I don’t care who votes as long as I get to count the ballots.

[onona]

Every Secretary of State from each state should sue.

[Brown Deer]

but 0bama says there is nothing wrong with the system, so what does he need to fix?

[Rashputin]

In other nations the US pushes the use of a photo ID and a purple finger dyed with ink that won't come off for days. That's what we need here. With the dyed finger, everyone has to stick the same finger in the dye, there are few ways around the fact that you already voted once.

If India can give every eligible voter in the country a photo ID to use when they vote and afford enough purple ink for their elections, I feel sure we can match that degree of security for a far lower expenditure than whatever scam the Federal Government is proposing.

[OldArmy52]

Dem’s goal is to re-create Venezuela elections integrity here...so that Dems never lose an election, no matter how the people vote.

Dems double downing on criminal corruption.

[Bob434]

elections aren’t federally controlled- i knew damn well as soon as the liberals began a concerted effort to denounce the results ‘because of russian hacking’ that something like this was going to come along-

Trump MUST bring this to the supreme court if it goes through to put a stop to this freakin nonsense

[Bubba Gump Shrimp]

“With the dyed finger, everyone has to stick the same finger in the dye, there are few ways around the fact that you already voted once.”
.
.
.
There was a Mark Steyn column during the primary, and he mentioned he was somewhere abroad (forgot where) and they use ultra-violet finger dye. When you go to vote, you put your hand under a black light.

I like this method, as there are some folks who invoke the right to NOT vote. It allows them to not be singled out for their (albeit poor) decision to abstain from voting without reprisal. Well, unless folks at work or wherever are walking around with black lights (which I could see in certain union halls or school faculty lounges).

[sten]

there is a push by myself and a few others to provide integrity to the vote. this will result in living citizens only voting once in their home district.

obviously, the dems want to get out in front of it and try to wrestle control so they can provide an avenue through which to cheat.

unfortunately for them, done properly w/ voter-ids, facial recognition, digital signatures and a public blockchain voting database per district, there is no way to cheat.

we just have to insure it’s implemented properly