{"id":1366,"date":"2021-08-18T19:42:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T19:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voterpurgeproject.org\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2022-09-08T23:30:11","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T04:30:11","slug":"the-cybersecurity-202-election-officials-are-pushing-back-against-partisan-audits-launched-by-trump-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voterpurgeproject.org\/index.php\/2021\/08\/18\/the-cybersecurity-202-election-officials-are-pushing-back-against-partisan-audits-launched-by-trump-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cybersecurity 202: Election officials are pushing back against partisan audits launched by Trump allies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Joseph Marks<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anchor of The Cybersecurity 202 newsletter Today at 7:28 a.m. EDT44 with Aaron Schaffer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The battle lines are hardening between the vast majority of election officials who\u2019ve spent months validating and defending the results of the 2020 election and former president Donald Trump’s supporters, who are still challenging those results without evidence and demanding new reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such partisan and poorly run review<\/a> started months ago in Maricopa County, Ariz., but it has not yet produced<\/a> any results. Partisans are pushing other audits in Wisconsin<\/a> and elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coalition of top state election officials is pushing back<\/a> by endorsing a how-to guide for post-election audits that criticizes reviews like Arizona’s that are run on a partisan basis and by private companies without ample experience in the field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Election officials fear the drumbeat of baseless allegations about election hacking and fraud from Trump allies will dampen faith in future election results and maybe in the democratic process itself<\/strong>. Ironically, the assault comes after a four-year election security surge<\/a> that made 2020 by far the most secure against hacking in decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m terribly distressed about what this has done to the public\u2019s perception of elections,\u201d Ann S. Jacobs<\/strong> (D), chair of the state Elections Commission in Wisconsin, told me. \u201cIt erodes the faith of the electorate in their elected leaders. It justifies violence and threats of violence against election workers. America has always prided itself on its orderly transition of power and these fake accusations are undermining that<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R), leader of the state Assembly’s elections committee, issued subpoenas<\/a> to two of the state\u2019s largest counties, Milwaukee and Brown, demanding they turn over their voting machines to the legislature for review. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not clear how much force those subpoenas have because they lack support so far from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R). Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson (D) told me in a statement that he\u2019s \u201creviewing the subpoena we received with regard to its validity,\u201d but he declined to comment further. Brandtjen didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gov. Tony Evers (D) has called<\/a> the Maricopa audit a “clown show” and said Wisconsin county officials\u2019 response to the audits should be \u201chell no.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the effort is nevertheless fueling partisan rancor and doubts about the Wisconsin results. <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Trump sent a note to reporters<\/a> praising the audit and poking at Vos. \u201cHopefully Republican Speaker Robin Vos has the integrity and strength Wisconsin needs to support Rep. Brandtjen\u2019s efforts. Our Country is counting on it!\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wisconsin Election Commissioner Robert F. Spindell Jr. (R), a supporter of the audit, told me public concerns about the election\u2019s legitimacy mean more reviews are necessary.<\/strong> He pointed to a Marquette Law School poll<\/a> that found 71 percent of Wisconsin Republicans aren\u2019t confident the state\u2019s election results were accurate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe question is more than is this concern legitimate or not. The issue is a huge number of people think there\u2019s a problem with the election<\/strong>,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems to me we should try to do something to solve that rather than say, \u2018You don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about. You\u2019re all idiots. Believe us, everything was great.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wisconsin\u2019s results, however, have already been validated by a machine review and hand recounts in Milwaukee County and Dane County, home to Madison. They\u2019re also in the midst of two other reviews<\/a> \u2013 one led by the state\u2019s Legislative Audit Bureau and another by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spindell recently attended the cyber symposium<\/a> hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has spun a broad and baseless conspiracy theory that China changed votes to steal the election from Trump. Spindell said he wasn\u2019t necessarily convinced by Lindell\u2019s full theory but came back convinced that \u201canything can be hacked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lying, cheating and stealing in every aspect of life and now all of a sudden in voting there\u2019s not? It\u2019s hard for me to believe<\/strong>,\u201d he told me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Election security experts generally argue that election hacking isn\u2019t impossible but that it\u2019s extremely difficult \u2013 and almost always requires hands-on access to every voting machines that’s successfully hacked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means it\u2019s exceedingly unlikely that anyone could alter enough votes to flip even a small election. <\/strong>If that happened it would almost certainly be caught by auditors, who could determine the true result by counting paper records of votes, which are available for about 95 percent of voting districts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

State election officials are banding together to push back against the partisan reviews. <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The National Association of Secretaries of State voted to approve a slate of recommendations for post-election audits during its meeting this week. The recommendations <\/a>were first reported by Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n