Intel agencies to brief officials from all 50 states on election threats

[Julian Englis]

Source: The Hill

Top U.S. intelligence agencies will host a briefing for election officials from all 50 states starting Friday on possible election threats from foreign adversaries, amid warnings from officials this week that Russia aims to interfere in the 2018 midterm elections.

The classified briefing on Friday and Sunday, hosted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, aims to educate the officials on possible threats to election infrastructure.

"The briefings will focus on increasing awareness of foreign adversary intent and capabilities against the states’ election infrastructure, as well as a discussion of threat mitigation efforts," the ODNI said in a statement.

National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, along with FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Mike Pompeo testified before Congress this week that the agencies are expecting election interference from Russia similar to its efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/374148-intel-agencies-to-brief-officials-from-all-50-states-on-election

[iluvtennis]

1. Most state election officials are GOPers...just hope they unplug their ears and actually listen.

[unblock]

3. No, state goppers will see this as continuing education

Thanks for the hints, feds!

[DFW]

2. That's good to know, but....

Election officials from about 30 of those states would prefer the Putin-inspired results to the real ones, and are unlikely to take measures that will show the real results as opposed to the ones they want.

For all their feigned "anti-kommanism," the Republicans are the worst of Stalinists. They remind me of French Communist boss Georges Marchais (a rich man who lived in a villa, by the way). When asked if he and his party, if elected, would cede power if they were to lose a subsequent vote, his answer was, "why would anyone ever want to vote us out?" That accurately sums up the Republican attitude toward elections in the USA. There's a reason that ALL efforts at suppressing voting rights in the last 20 years come from Republicans.

[ancianita]

4. I hate to think this, but you are right.

[DFW]

6. Sadly, I can think of nothing I have seen or heard that indicates the contrary. n/t

[Hekate]

9. So bloody depressing

[ancianita]

5. IF they get warned, IF they go ahead anyway, they aid and abet foreign enemies. Which indicts them.

[GusBob]

7. Too little too late. The KGB is laughing at us

Us election systems and state and local election officers are no match for the KGB

[turbinetree]

8. I hope they make a suggestion -----use paper ballots

Why not...............

[NBachers]

10. Dear republicans: Here's the roadmap you can follow to assure even more electoral Victory!

[diva77]

11. How about briefing them about votes being shunted to a rethug server

site -- which is what happened in Ohio in 2004 Presidential election


New Court Filing Reveals How the 2004 Ohio Presidential Election Was Hacked
Monday, July 25, 2011 By Bob Fitrakis, The Free Press | Report

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/2319:new-court-filing-reveals-how-the-2004-ohio-presidential-election-was-hacked
SNIP
A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio's 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.

The filing also includes the revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and Karl Rove. Connell ran the private IT firm GovTech that created the controversial system that transferred Ohio's vote count late on election night 2004 to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by SmarTech. That is when the vote shift happened, not predicted by the exit polls, that led to Bush's unexpected victory. Connell died a month and a half after giving this deposition in a suspicious small plane crash.
SNIP


--------------------
I believe this was domestic rather than foreign interference, courtesy of Karl Rove

[SergeStorms]

12. They're certainly capable of that.........

and much, much more. They worship power and money, and they're not against killing anyone who gets in the way of that pursuit. Fascists believe they're the only people who have the right to govern others.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Jeh Johnson tried doing this over the summer of 2016

and suggested to the states that DHS could declare elections (and its apparatus) as "critical infrastructure", which would then trigger funding and other resources to help them secure their systems... Yet the red state douchebags exclaimed that doing that would be "government overreach".

[pressbox69]

14. Will it do any good?

Most of the republican officials are already behind the election threats.

[Delphinus]

15. So all our

elections can be usurped - how will we ever know that our vote counts anymore?

[ananda]

16. I think the red states will put this on ignore.

Free and fair elections should be a national imperative.

I don't think it should be left up to individual states.