Free Republic

The Department of Homeland Security is mandating random paper ballot audits for upcoming elections, citing significant security risks posed by Chinese-manufactured components in widely-used voting machines. The Homeland Security Department will require random audits of paper ballots in the midterm elections, citing long-simmering concern that the nation’s largest voting technology companies use Chinese parts in their voting machines, according to a letter from Secretary Markwayne Mullin released Thursday. Mullin sent the letter to the White House Transparency Task Force earlier this week outlining the dangers posed by Chinese components in American voting machines and the way that these components could...

The U.S. military is looking into an incident on Saturday in which it lost communications with 50 long-range nuclear-armed missiles based in the northern United States. The U.S. Air Force's new Global Strike Command lost communications with the missiles for about 45 minutes, and says it immediately dispatched troops to inspect the sites. The check determined there was no damage and no evidence of sabotage. A spokesman for the command says investigators believe a faulty circuit board at a control center was to blame. The spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel John Thomas, says experts found that the same type of part failed...

It's a process of mixing authentic electronic parts with fake ones in hopes that the counterfeits will not be detected when companies test the components for multimillion-dollar missile systems, helicopters and aircraft.