Why The November Election Is Going To Be Even More Effed Than We Realized | Talking Points Memo

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#21

I can assure you that this will not be feasible on a national scale in our lifetime and it very much is the technology that is the problem. “Work like a credit card” implies not tamper-proof enough for an election.

This experiment was done with a ‘hack proof’ voting system based on existing tech before. It remained unhacked for about 4 hours.

You might be able to do it with a system that exploits quantum mechanics to distribute keys and detect intrusion on communications, but this tech is not widely available outside of physics labs in China and Austria.

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#22

It’s absolutely doable, if done right. And that’s the problem.

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#23

The problems that were had in Georgia are not insurmountable or inevitable. They’re predictable and solvable. Like my Grandmother used to say “often things are broken or left broken because they work better for someone else that way”. Georgia’s problems were actually quite easy to prevent. You can test equipment before you employ it or better yet before you buy it. Nothing was stopping Georgia from using the years before last weeks election from developing a backup system. Their excuse is "
no one could have predicted…" That may be true but that’s what a backup system is. Preparation to survive what was unpredicted.

It’s dangerous to project the Georgia cluster fuck as a systemic failure due to the complexities of voting today. Due to Covid or ballot styles. None of the above. Those were just the tools. That mess worked for someone and that’s why Georgia had it.

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#24

You miss my point; there is no “if done right” to be had at this time.

#25

There’s a political culture and tradition of benign neglect and decay in some places that’s justified by a “that’s just how we do things here” mentality. It benefits leaders because it tends to keep them in power and saves them money for use on pork projects, and many locals like it because it keeps them from having to change and keep up with the times (of course, when they fail to do that, they whine about being left behind and blame those uppity Dems). It tends to prevail in red states and ironically perpetuates an anti-progressive attitude. Usually it’s only local activists with the help of the federal government who can change this, as in the civil rights era. It’s also why true election reform won’t happen until the feds take it on, with the help of local activists.

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#26

I’m talking about whether it can be done, not whether it can be done now, given the politics of things. What’s preventing this is politics, not technology.

#27

No. You’re just plain wrong.

#28

It might not have worked as planned this time. The GOP in Georgia is terrified that this obvious manipulation will motive Democrats in the Nov. election. They fear that Democrats will plan for long lines and be ready to stand in them and eventually vote. Some strategists are concerned the GOP gave up it’s game plan in a warm up match so it will be less effective when the real game is played.

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#29

Won’t work. Cold backups will be hashed and a comp done. The alterations will glare at you.

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#30

I’ve read that African Americans generally prefer voting in person.

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#31

But that’s enough to throw an election into contention.

#32

If I lived under American Apartheid, I’d probably be wary too.

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#33

I’m sorry, I don’t understand.

#34

I disagree to an extent. It can be done and is being done in the USA. The blue print is there as are the supplies to build it. There are no technological hurdles if all you want to do is make it easy to vote and easy to tally those votes. That’s simple stuff. There’s really no reason to connect a voting machine to the internet so hacking can be avoid old school. Voter registries are simple data fields that are easy to back up and match for alterations.

Where there’s a will there’s way folks way. Georgia is a GOP dominated state with an electorate that would have it another way. That is the problem.

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#35

I don’t think so. You can just alter voter info willy nilly. It has to be done carefully and on a small scale. If folks are ready for it there’s little chance it will work.

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#36

Voter files are simple files. They are lines of data that do not interact with each other. That’s a 1990’s database. All you do is back the thing up and get your back up offline. Simple scripts can monitor changes to any data that was written prior and finalized. It’s not hard to protect data.

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#37

Overlord worked in 1944.

These are technical problems. I will say that MOUNTAINS OF ENRAGED DEMOCRATIC VOTERS will put the cheaters on the back-foot.

Shoot for a 400 EV win, not a HorseRace.

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#38

Because you say so–or because you like to play Cassandra?

#39

Georgia is one part of the problem, to be sure (“Ya can’t fix stupid”), but web tech is far too easy to subvert to be useful when there are vested state actors involved.

Setting up easy registration and even voting is doable. Doing so in a way that isn’t easily spoofed, captured, and corrupted is another matter.

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#40

So, big banks can prevent digital theft, but the biggest organization in the world, the federal government, can’t do online voting right? Uhuh…

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