Fineman: Here's How Trump Could Take Control Of Every U.S. Polling Place

[highplainsdem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-election-infrastructure-homeland-security_us_58927a40e4b0af07cb6b7cfa

WASHINGTON ― At the time ― only about a month ago ― Obama administration officials thought the move was a swell idea; good for national security and a subtle way to twist the knife in the president-elect on the topic of Russian election hacking.

But it may have been the riskiest decision of the Obama years, opening a legal door to Donald Trump forces looking to control future access to the ballot box in the name of national security, and to a new president who decries millions of (phantom) “fraudulent” votes he claims were illegally cast against him.

Here’s how the Obama administration did it.

On Jan. 6, the administration released a devastating report on Russian involvement in the presidential election, buttressing those trying to undermine the validity of Trump’s Electoral College victory.

On the same day, and not by coincidence, then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson issued an official designation as part of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, designed, at least in part, to show just how seriously the outgoing Obama national security team regarded such intrusions.

In a four-page notice, Johnson said that, henceforth, “election infrastructure in this country” would gain protection as part of the “Government Facilities critical infrastructure.” It was now “critical infrastructure,” just like dams, the electric grid, financial services and a host of other sectors.

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“By ‘election infrastructure’ we mean storage facilities, polling places, and centralized vote tabulation locations used to support the election process; and information and communications technology to include voter registration databases, voting machines, and other systems to manage the election process and report and display results on behalf of state and local governments.”

Johnson had been mulling the designation for months, and admitted in his announcement that it had faced opposition from “many state and local election officials.” He insisted the move “does not mean a federal takeover, regulation, oversight or intrusion concerning elections in this country.”

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While protecting electoral systems is important, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said recently, “it is unclear if the incoming administration will abide by Secretary Johnson’s definition of the limits.”

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Who knows what threats Bannon ― or Trump ― may find lurking in the electoral system in 2018 or 2020? And who knows what measures DHS might deem necessary to “protect” that system?

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[BSdetect]

1. We still expect that thwere will be another election?

I have serious doubts.

This just adds to the worries.

These aholes are capable of anything while the GOP kisses their feet.