Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Feds have more authority to regulate colored pencils than to ensure election security, report warns

https://www.newsweek.com/us-election-cybersecurity-attack-severe-risk-need-federal-regulation-brennan-center-warning-1471248
"Only three private vendors control more than 80 percent of U.S. voting systems across the country and the federal government has almost zero oversight power, a new election report warns. The Brennan Center for Justice issued a report about the vulnerability of U.S. voting equipment and election vendors who control an overwhelming majority of the country's electoral process. The report cautions that the federal government has more authority to regulate colored pencils than it does to enforce regulations on the nation's election infrastructure. The Brennan Center warns that voting technology vendors have "little financial incentive" to prioritize election security and guard against cyber attacks or foreign interference ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The report repeatedly urges Congress to set up a federal certification process for election vendors instead of allowing states to circumvent voting technology standards. And the findings corroborate several recent reports that lawmakers, who themselves were elected using these very same vendors and machines, have little to no incentive to implement election safety standards. "The ability of a foreign power to exploit the vulnerabilities of a vendor in a single county in Pennsylvania could have extraordinary repercussions for the country," the report released Tuesday reads. "Ultimately, the best course of action would be for Congress to create a uniform framework for election vendors." The federal certification program proposed by the Brennan Center's report would empower the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to conduct independent oversight of vendors outside of "partisan political manipulation." The three companies, Dominion, ES&S and Hart InterCivic, control and oversee a vast majority of all U.S. voting machines. And as a September 2018 New York Times report indicated, this select few dominates the $300-million-a-year voting machine industry."