GOP votes to end only fed agency that ensures voting machines can't be hacked

[BoomerFan]

House Republicans Just Voted to Eliminate the Only Federal Agency That Makes Sure Voting Machines Can’t Be Hacked

Republicans would make it easier to steal an election by killing the Election Assistance Commission.

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 can’t 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.

(rest of story at the link at top)

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

Seems a bit silly to have a whole permanent group to do a job every few years.

Better question is, why are any of these machines online to begin with? Set them up in a polling station with LAN, have them feed the results to a detachable HD. When the polling is done, have a armored truck or something drive it to a centralized location in the state. The state then takes all those HDs, loads them into their LAN that's also not connected to the internet and compiles them into the State's results.

Oh look, 100% unhackable election because you are never connected to the internet and it took me 5 minutes to think it up, not the 16 years this group has been around. A group like that would have never gave you an unhackable election though, because then they would have been out a job.

[*michaelsean*]

(02-07-2017, 09:53 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Seems a bit silly to have a whole permanent group to do a job every few years.

Better question is, why are any of these machines online to begin with? Set them up in a polling station with LAN, have them feed the results to a detachable HD. When the polling is done, have a armored truck or something drive it to a centralized location in the state. The state then takes all those HDs, loads them into their LAN that's also not connected to the internet and compiles them into the State's results.

Oh look, 100% unhackable election because you are never connected to the internet and it took me 5 minutes to think it up, not the 16 years this group has been around. A group like that would have never gave you an unhackable election though, because then they would have been out a job.

Someone already thought of it because voting machines are not connected to the internet.

[Benton]

(02-07-2017, 09:53 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Seems a bit silly to have a whole permanent group to do a job every few years.

Better question is, why are any of these machines online to begin with? Set them up in a polling station with LAN, have them feed the results to a detachable HD. When the polling is done, have a armored truck or something drive it to a centralized location in the state. The state then takes all those HDs, loads them into their LAN that's also not connected to the internet and compiles them into the State's results.

Oh look, 100% unhackable election because you are never connected to the internet and it took me 5 minutes to think it up, not the 16 years this group has been around. A group like that would have never gave you an unhackable election though, because then they would have been out a job.

(02-08-2017, 11:20 AM)michaelsean Wrote: Someone already thought of it because voting machines are not connected to the internet.

I can't speak for every state, but michaelsean is correct, at least for Kentucky.

I've covered every state election for nearly 20 years now, and it's always a long slow process. Pollsters close when they can (sometime after 6), and at least two collect the info printed out by the machine. They also bring a removable disc. That's taken to the election officer's location where they make sure the two sets of numbers match.If it's all good, they enter that into an online database. But the machine itself is never connected, and as soon as polls close, it's shut down so that if there was a quesiton of tampering, it's ready to be inspected.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(02-08-2017, 11:43 AM)Benton Wrote: I can't speak for every state, but michaelsean is correct, at least for Kentucky.

I've covered every state election for nearly 20 years now, and it's always a long slow process. Pollsters close when they can (sometime after 6), and at least two collect the info printed out by the machine. They also bring a removable disc. That's taken to the election officer's location where they make sure the two sets of numbers match.If it's all good, they enter that into an online database. But the machine itself is never connected, and as soon as polls close, it's shut down so that if there was a quesiton of tampering, it's ready to be inspected.

So in other words, people are just throwing out the word hacking because it is currently a scary buzzword, but they really don't understand it? Reminds me of how a program called BleachBit turned into actual bleach. Lol

"It's technological, thus it must be able to be hacked by people in Russia!"

[Yojimbo]

Most machines have a USB or smart card reader and that's how they can be hacked. Bring in your own thumb drive with malware and you can vote as many times as you like or make it so everybody's vote goes to the same person regardless of who they select.

There's about a billion YouTube videos on how to do it.

[Benton]

(02-08-2017, 07:47 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: So in other words, people are just throwing out the word hacking because it is currently a scary buzzword, but they really don't understand it? Reminds me of how a program called BleachBit turned into actual bleach. Lol

"It's technological, thus it must be able to be hacked by people in Russia!"

pretty much. As I've said before, you can definitely have voter fraud. But it requires nearly everyone involved (including from two parties) all the way from the site up to the state regulators to be involved.

outside of the basic ways (fake id cards, voting on behalf of the dead or incapacitated, etc). But the idea that some guy is punching a few keys and deciding the presidency is unrealistic.

(02-08-2017, 08:02 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: Most machines have a USB or smart card reader and that's how they can be hacked. Bring in your own thumb drive with malware and you can vote as many times as you like or make it so everybody's vote goes to the same person regardless of who they select.

There's about a billion YouTube videos on how to do it.

there's also several hundred different machines and several thousand sites. Can machines be manipulated? Sure, given enough time and resources you can break any machine or code. But, again, its unlikely it has much of an impact given the differences in machines from one district to the next.

for a frame of reference, the last county I covered in November has around 30 machines. I was talking to the county clerk about the delay on some of the ballots and she mentioned there were 5 different kinds (that's counting paper, so 4 machines) just in that small district.

for the time and resources you'd have to have to effect millions of votes, you be better off forming a super pac and calling the candidate a gun hating liberal.

[6andcounting]

According to the Dems this agency is useless as Russia hacked the whole election.

[Vas Deferens]

(02-09-2017, 07:44 AM)6andcounting Wrote: According to the Dems this agency is useless as Russia hacked the whole election.

I love how the narrative revolves around media 'hacking' without a peep about the machines themselves. Good thing daddy is looking at Mexicans who don't have lisences let alone vote. While some dumb **** republicans still think soros owns all the voting machines.

Get rid of the entire system and set up dunking booths at state fairs. We'd have better turn out and a more accuracy.

[Rotobeast]

(02-09-2017, 09:25 AM)Vas Deferens Wrote: I love how the narrative revolves around media 'hacking' without a peep about the machines themselves. Good thing daddy is looking at Mexicans who don't have lisences let alone vote. While some dumb **** republicans still think soros owns all the voting machines.

Get rid of the entire system and set up dunking booths at state fairs. We'd have better turn out and a more accuracy.

I like where your head is at !

I'm leaning towards paintball wars.
We start at the county level, then state finals, ect...ect...

Daddy will make an awesome reality show out of it.
He'll put 10% of the profits toward the national debt.
*sniffle*
We're so blessed.

[Dill]

(02-09-2017, 02:11 AM)Benton Wrote: pretty much. As I've said before, you can definitely have voter fraud. But it requires nearly everyone involved (including from two parties) all the way from the site up to the state regulators to be involved.

You have moved from voter fraud to election fraud.