Election securityTime for election reform
Congressional investigations have uncovered extensive interference - attempted fraud - by Russia and other foreign agents, including attempts to hack electronic voting machines, attempts to hack voter rolls to add or delete voters, targeted internet advertising, and targeted fake news and trolling. Here are five obvious reforms to strengthen the “critical infrastructure” of our democracy.
The Intelligence and Judiciary committees in the majority-Republican House and Senate, have conducted extensive investigations into the meddling by Russia in the 2016 US elections. This past week saw a Report from certain Democrats in the U.S. Congress. And a year ago, we saw a declaration by the Department of Homeland Security that America’s election system is a threatened “critical infrastructure” for our country.
The congressional investigations have uncovered extensive interference - attempted fraud - by Russia and other foreign agents, including attempts to hack electronic voting machines, attempts to hack voter rolls to add or delete voters, targeted internet advertising, and targeted fake news and trolling.
So far, no election recommendations have come from Special Counsel Robert Muller, who was appointed nine months ago to investigate and report on the Russian meddling. So let us recommend the most obvious reforms to strengthen the “critical infrastructure” of our democracy:
1. Mandatory Photo ID at Voting - Nothing stops election fraud faster. Only the actual people registered to vote should be allowed to vote. Period. You can’t use a bank, enter an office building, or buy beer without showing photo ID, so the same should be required for voting.
2. Clean Voter Rolls - A biennial “purge” of dead people, people who moved, and people sent to prison will keep our voter rolls honest. No more dead people voting or double voters who vote in two or more places. Voter rolls - and purges and new registrations - should be public and transparent to help stop voter fraud.
3. Paper Ballots - All voting should be done on official paper ballots. Only paper ballots can be counted - and re-counted if necessary - to ensure that that the actual vote cast matches the vote counted.
4. Mandatory Audit of Voting Machines - Every state should be required to do a post election audit - a hand recount of the paper ballots from a random sample of voting machines - in every election. If any machine “fails,” then a full 100 percent hand count should be required. This will catch most “hacking” of the voting machines.
5. Anti “Foreign Money” Laws - Foreign money is already illegal - but it’s been over 20 years since John Huang was caught clumsily bundling illegal Chinese foreign money for the Clintons. Foreign governments and their agents are now smarter - they launder their money through their American business interests and partners - making the money look clean. America needs stronger laws - and stronger enforcement - to stop it.
In an ever smaller and more intimate world - where some government agent in Moscow or Beijing can access an American’s most intimate personal details - we need to strengthen and harden our elections system, if our democracy is going to survive.
Grant M. Lally, the publisher of the Homeland Security New Wire, is the managing partner of Lally & Misir, LLP
