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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe still have questions about whether Russia meddled in N.C. That's a bad sign. - WaPo Editorial
A Post investigation detailed how North Carolina officials have desperately sought information and help from the Department of Homeland Security following a possible Election Day 2016 breach, in which Durham Countys electronic poll books, which provide information on eligible voters, improperly rejected people at their polling places. Election officials resorted to using paper-based poll books, creating massive delays. If a malicious foreign actor wanted to promote havoc on Election Day or call election results into question, this is one way it might happen.
State officials initially thought human error caused the problems, but they could not be sure. They got more concerned after a report that the Kremlin had targeted an election vendor that is, a third-party company that provides election hardware or software to state and local governments involved in polling book software. The company from which Durham County got its polling book software, VR Systems, claims that it did not hear from DHS until September 2017, months after a news report revealed that the Russians had targeted an election services firm matching its description, and that, when it did hear, word came in the form of a strange 2 a.m. phone call.
Last year, North Carolinas attorney general formally requested clarification from DHS on the states past and present vulnerabilities. His office reports that he did not receive a substantive answer. By many accounts, the trickle of information flowing from federal to state authorities has increased substantially since Russias presidential election hacking, as more state officials have obtained security clearances and as the scope of the threat has become clearer. North Carolina officials also insist that DHS has generally stepped up its game on election security, cooperating intensively with the state to evaluate the integrity of its voting systems.
But it is absurd that there is still any question about whether Durham Countys 2016 polling book problems were tied to the Kremlin. The Trump administration must do better. Federal officials must regulate election vendors as well as state systems. Congress should demand it and provide whatever funds are needed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-still-have-questions-about-whether-russia-meddled-in-nc-thats-a-bad-sign/2019/06/16/266069b6-8c73-11e9-8f69-a2795fca3343_story.html?utm_term=.aa082fec936e
VR Systems, claims that it did not hear from DHS until September 2017, months after a news report revealed that the Russians had targeted an election services firm matching its description, and that, when it did hear, word came in the form of a strange 2 a.m. phone call.
I mean, wtf?
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Florida also uses VR Systems and Rubio and DeSantis alluded to problems there as well but wouldn't say what.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)suspect the government could be sitting on evidence of interference in the vote, here and elsewhere. I didn't rush to it at election time, and Trump is president because he was sworn in, but was he actually elected?
Virtually every poll had him way behind, then there was that bizarre wild oscillation of poll swings in the last few weeks, and the election results that confounded every professional observer. Including, I believe, the one California outlier who predicted Trump would win because that analysis did not include Russian, NYT and AP, or FBI interference.
triron
(22,011 posts)letter. But perhaps this is a false flag.The Princeton Election Consortium gave HRC a 99%
chance of winning right up to election day. Sam Wang has never been so wrong.
Exit polls predicted HRC would win as did early voting. Everything smells. But the media
quietly ignores all this.
Beausoleil
(2,845 posts)We used to do it the other way around, you know - using exit polling to affirm election results, which doesn't work at all any more. So this is next best! Now we use elections to disprove polls!
It's a good thing for the media because the last thing they need is to be bothered by their constitutional responsibility of asking the hard questions about election fraud, gerrymandering, campaign finance violations, foreign influence, etc. It's just not very profitable.
Besides, we should be very secure in the knowledge that NOT ONE vote was changed! Going back to 2004, at least, NOT ONE vote. Even with our buddies, the Russians breaking into systems in at least 39 states, NOT ONE vote was altered and no races were affected; they are just that stupid. Thankfully, no election results were affected, EVER.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)As for the media, they're not all equal. We know the NYT and AP are dirty. We also don't know if any subject is censored, but when they are coverage disappears.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)and resign...for the good of America.
pandr32
(11,605 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,156 posts)secure. Forget the feds...by the way they got around to even seeing any correspondence or the like asking for help or particulars, it's too late.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,156 posts)demand) paper ballots too, where you actually have to use a lead pencil to mark the ballot.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Lonestarblue
(10,053 posts)Even with direct evidence (taken with phones of the actual screens) that machines were flipping votes from Beto to Cruz in 2018, the Sec. of State just claimed it was all voter error. The same thing has been happening for a decade with these old machines but they refuse to do anything because the flip is from a Dem to a Republican.
spanone
(135,859 posts)mopinko
(70,197 posts)wishstar
(5,271 posts)Repubs clearly hoped some kind of voting irregularity had occurred where they could have votes for Dem. Roy Cooper disqualified. Fortunately, the longer the recount went on, the more additional votes were counted for Cooper from absentees. Seemed though that Repubs were hoping the election interference in this heavily Democratic area would help them to win NC
NRaleighLiberal
(60,018 posts)giving orange asshole any benefit of a doubt is incredibly maddening.
It's all right there. Let's start the process of getting his ass out of there and locking all of the criminals up.
I think the powder is so beyond dry. Enough!
mnhtnbb
(31,401 posts)Hillary was ahead by 150,000 votes in NC when the first totals went up. Even if all the tiny red counties went predominantly for Trump it seemed unlikely they could catch up to that kind of lead if the big blue counties returned with substantial margins for her.
The Dem candidate for Governor--incumbent Attorney General Roy Cooper--squeaked by with a win over the then Governor bathroom boy McCrory. Cooper's numbers out of the gate were nothing like Hillary's lead. Not even close. The Governor's race was a horse race all night...and continued on for nearly a month before McCrory conceded.
Botany
(70,565 posts)Let me guess the race of those who were stopped from voting.
essaynnc
(801 posts)Just remember that statistics is a very accurate mathematical discipline. To see that virtually every race in the country shifted from the poles and exit data toward the republican candidate is an infinitesimally remote possibility. But like most science these days, it's being ignored.
Isn't it Stalin that said that it didn't matter who voted, it mattered who counted the votes??????