America's achilles heel - election system

I ran across this story today about the fragility and susceptibility of the georgia state election system.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article216056560.html

Put in context with the known and on going russian efforts (I suspect every other bad actor is getting in on the action as well) it seems that simple disruptions to the antiquated electronic voting systems (no paper backup) can wreak political havoc in America.

It appear America's enemies have found its achilles heel. Who needs an aircraft carrier when for a few million you can have yourself a weaponized cyberforce to create even more devastating effects.

Imagine not being able to trust the american electoral system. Course if Dear Leader recognizes this buring forest fire in time, he just might patriotically attempt to "delay or suspend" the election in the name of national security.

nah, he'd never do something like that.

 

Certainly not since the Russians are according to Trump out to help the Democrats. The man is an idiot!

 

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Whatever its origins, the situation is dire and it seems trump and parts of congress aren't concerned.

Asymmetrical warfare is the only realistic method of overcoming a more militarily and economically powerful enemy. That is what is happening in digital battlespace right now. The weaponization of social media provides for the targeting of individual enemy citizens based on extensive personal demographic profiles with specific kinds of messages. Couple that with an economic and political infrastructure that is increasingly reliant of digital connectivity.


The "arms race" of the 21st century won't be in space with fancy trillion dollar weapons platforms, it will be in supercomputer farms and fought outwardly in the arena of social media.

Sadly, "Please sir may I have another" is not a good look for the most powerful nation in human history.

 

I would support dragging the old paper ballot machines out of mothballs and putting them into service again

 

Maybe requiring people to show ID to prove who they are to vote would help?

 

It would help, along with doing away with motor voter and absentee ballots

 

Leftists aren't losing because of the voting system, they're losing because they're frightening people.

 

Nothing new.

People have made the same arguments and pointed to the same problems ever since the 2000 Gore-Bush election.

Electronic voting and paper ballots are all susceptible to fraud. In the 2000 Gore-Bush recount, when boxes of "misplaced" ballots kept showing up, Florida Democrat Irving Slosberg was caught with a Votamatic voting machine in his car. I wonder how many times he voted during the recount?

And when you can vote without showing any ID the system is wide open for fraud.

 

Let me guess.

If a Democrat wins, it's bullet proof.

Anyone else, we have Armageddon on our hands.

 

Nah.....people have learned they are failures waiting to happen. That's why so many of their kind are following thru with the # Walk Away.

 

@Jonsa I would answer you the same thing I answered to Lafayettebis.

What happens in the political scene of USA is the twisted reflet of the the USA as a whole. Maybe the election system of USA is a little bit archaic, but it isn't itself the problem. The achilles heel of USA are more at my sense the ethnic and political tensions.

 

There have always been ethnic and political tensions in america. The election process is foundational to the nation and its identity. Its vulnerability is too obvious and tempting for bad actors to attack.

Right now the challenge to meet is adapting national and individual defenses in a now weaponized social media increasingly connected world. IN transformative times, traditional strategies, perspectives, and processes are slow to react and adapt. The most forward thinking national antagonists are exploiting that bigly right now.

 

I don't know why it's such an issue. I guess because state governments are too often incompetent to manage such systems effectively, especially in a state like Georgia?

 

You conflate the individual voter fraud with a concerted direct foreign covert intervention with malice aforethought. IOW an attack on the nation.

But you knew that, didn't you?

 

No, it an actual weakness and your cynical partisan dismissal is typical bullshit deflection.

 

The greatest mistake they made in the Constitution and Bill Of Rights was not establishing a prohibition against foreign ownership of the press/media.

 

Great. Let's do voter ID.

 

No. The 2000 Gore-Bush recount was a concerted effort by Democrats to commit fraud. Slosberg, a Democrat politician in the FLorida House of Representatives, was around the recount activity and somehow had a Votamatic voting machine. When caught by the police, he was not prosecuted by the Democrat Supervisor of Elections.

The Democrat refusal to allot voter ID is a concerted effort to undermine the integrity of the electoral process. It is a concerted domestic activity "with malice aforethought. IOW an attack on the nation."

 

Having a secure system to take and tally votes should be common sense. And such a system should be absolutely impossible to hack into and manipulate votes. It is my understanding that these voting machines and the connections used to tally are not hackable, but is that actually a fact? It is also my understanding that some of these voting machines were pulled in parts of europe given they have the ability to be manipulated on site, to change, or flip flop votes from one person to another. And yet we still use them. Is it true. I dunno, but I read it a couple years ago.

If we are gonna use voting machines there should be a paper back up, for obvious reasons. Again the most basic common sense. Above partisanship, or should be.

Next, our election system should be set up to be monitored in the way the Carter Center monitors some sketchy foreign elections in suspect nations. That is if you want to feel safe about our elections. The idea that no one would ever be a criminal in regards to elections is just nonsense. Americans are not any more honest than other areas in the world. Human nature creates dishonesty, and it is a given. Human nature plus partisan politics and power will guarantee criminality. Again, basic common sense.

That we have done little to insure honest, accurate elections is very dangerous and destructive. And it is idiocy. And we have plenty of idiots involved in politics. Along with crooks.

If we fear russian hacking, that is very easy to solve. So solve it, unless of course you want to use that in the next election to explain why your candidate lost!

If we fear fraud, and we should, then set up an election system that can be monitored. Ours is not set up to actually meet this, or so the Carter Center told us in 2016. When I heard that I was first astounded, then shocked. WTF???

And yes, I am firmly for a picture ID being presented so that the poll worker can verify you are the person whose name you gave, and is checked to see if they are on the roll to vote. It is just common sense if you really want to stop as much fraud as possible. Is this important? Hell, it should be, regardless of partisanship. For it is common sense.

 

compulsory Voter ID, it's not hard.

 

Yeah. its all a big democratic conspiracy to destroy the nation. Forget the russians, its the dems.

But I do understand your partisan paranoia.

 

Still in your bubble I see. You used to be one of the most reasonable people in the forum, now you just resort to declaring everything you disagree with as "partisan paranoia".

 

Not at all. The fact that i entirely disagree with you should not be construed as being "unreasonable".

Your bumpersticker conspiracy arguments just don't hold water. they never do.

 

Disagreement is not the issue, discussing disagreement is the entire purpose of the forum and its (presumably) why people are here. Simply declaring people "conspiracy theorists" is not discussion, its just the opposite.

When people complained that the US govt was spying on US citizens, a lot of people dismissed it and labeled it the wild fantasy of conspiracy nuts. After Snowden and wikileaks the lies of the govt were exposed, after the govt was forced to admit they were spying. And those "conspiracy nuts" were proven correct.

The govt lies, politicians lie, they all have sophisticated processes and organizations to promote their lies and smear their opponents.

Don't be so closed minded.

 

I absolutely agree that governments lie and politicians lie. I don't simply "declare" somebody a conspiracy theorist.

I determine my opinion from their stated definitive belief that is wholly dependent on the premise of nefarious ulterior motives ascribed at every decision point in a "connect the dots" flight of fantasy.

In trumpland it seems people believe a deep state anti trump liberal HYDRA actually exists. Sorry, ain't buying it.

Be skeptical about the government? Sure thing. But skepticism isn't a green light for wild arsed speculation.