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How Election Security Has Become a Top Issue

Back in the spring of 2016, this blog asked the rhetorical question, “Could the election be hacked?”

The response: most people, including industry experts at the time, either ignored, mocked or laughed at the suggestion.  But after the events of the past few years, no one is laughing now at the potential for voting irregularities, either online or offline.

On the contrary, as we head closer to the November, election security is quickly rising to the very top of the domestic priority list and is set to be a top issue this Fall. Some of the recent headlines underline a growing sense of urgency, if not panic, regarding the topic and what’s at stake. For example:

• Security Magazine: Cybersecurity Concerns with Online Voting for 2020 Presidential Election
• Roll Call: Congress must act now to help states with vote-by-mail in November, experts say
• The American Interest: The Danger of Electoral Violence in the United States – “The 2020 election could result in widespread civil unrest unless immediate action is taken.”
• Delaware Public Radio: Delaware drops internet-based voting system used by some absentee voters amid security concerns
• Wall Street Journal: It’s Not Too Late to Save the 2020 Election
• NY Times: Georgia’s Election Mess: Many Problems, Plenty of Blame, Few Solutions for November – “Before Georgia’s embattled election officials can fix a voting system that suffered a spectacular collapse, leading to absentee ballots that never got delivered and hours long waits at polling sites on Tuesday, they must first figure out who is responsible. …”
• Atlantic Magazine: Why Americans Might Not Trust the Election Results – “Nearly three in five Americans don’t have confidence in the honesty of our elections, a February Gallup poll found. Republicans, Democrats, state officials, grandmothers, first-time voters, the politically (Read more...)