Washington Post: America is still unprepared for a Russian attack on our elections <read>
Though these machines are not routinely connected to the Internet, NYU’s Lawrence Norden warns that there are nonetheless ways to infiltrate them, including through computers used to program the machines. Since 2016, only one state, Virginia, has phased out all of its paperless machines. Georgia lawmakers failed last month to pass a bill that would have upgraded the state’s voting machines. And though Pennsylvania is pushing upgrades, the transition will not finish until after November’s vote.
Having paper-friendly machines is hardly enough. Paper trails enable state officials to run statistically sound post-election audits of vote tallies. Yet only a handful of states require rigorous audits, with only a handful more considering them.
Officials are too comfortable that no connectivity is sufficient to protect our machines. Its a good idea, yet insufficient, as demonstrated by STUXNET. Many believe STUXNET was perpetrated by the U.S. and Israel, which they deny. In any case, it demonstrates that foreign interests of one faction/government or another can change our elections.
Recently Secretary of the State, Denise Merrill, convened a Connecticut Cyber Security Task Force. Many of the comments at the first meeting give assurance that our Voter Registration System will be protected, yet some seemed to ignore the risks to anything not connected to the Internet <View on CT-N>
