The log4j bug is " the most serious vulnerability I have seen in my decades-long career” [Easterly]. This adds to the list of existing software vulnerabilities in voting machines that threaten our votes. An earlier story from cybersecurity firm Bishop Fox told about a serious vulnerability in BMDs (ballot marking devices that count votes) similar to those in the pipeline for New York State. Stop these vulnerable voting machines from being certified for New York by contacting your state legislators to pass S309, A1115 The Secure Voting Machines Act ("Ban the Hybrids”). Allegra Dengler

Trump Judge Allows Cases to Proceed Against GA Voter Suppression Law 'BradCast' 12/17/2021
Guest: Marilyn Marks of Coalition for Good Governance on that and MUCH more; Also: Stone takes the 5th; Judge allows Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation case to proceed against Fox 'News' …
It's been a rough close of the year for those of us fighting to preserve democracy in these United States against the rising authoritarian tide from the Right. But while it's has been a tough slog for passage of federal voting rights and election protection legislation in the U.S. Senate, there have been several critical victories for fans of democracy in federal court over this past week, as covered on today's BradCast.

Comment: The NYS Board of Elections is in the processing of certifying voting machines like these with barcodes New York City voters and others will be voting on them soon unless they are stopped now. Ask your legislators to support S309A/A1115A the "Secure Voting Machines Act” (Hybrid Ban). Ban voting systems that count votes hidden in bar codes that the voter cannot read or verify.

Comment: The extreme exposure of our election infrastructure to hacking requires immediate passage of the Freedom to Vote Act, which would patch some of the vulnerabilities. Allegra Dengler
Email your Senator to support election security.

WAPO "Civil rights groups.. are warning that the [Democratic] party needs to show a greater sense of urgency and stop letting congressional rules get in the way… NAACP President Derrick Johnson said ..“This is protecting our nation, our Constitution, so it would be unconscionable for members to leave before acting"

"Recently, Reuters' James Oliphant and Nathan Layne took a detailed look at the effect all of this is having on local elections officials in ... Georgia, where longtime, local election board officials --- specifically, Democratic election officials ... specifically black Democratic election officials (and frequently black Democratic women) --- are now being purged from County election boards across the state at an alarming rate….Butler describes today what is going on right now in Georgia, largely under the national media radar, as being part of the GOP's "insurrection plan nationally, that 'We are going to take over every aspect of controlling the outcome of elections, so if I don't like the results, I can put in the results that I want to have.'"

Intercept: "The document she leaked didn’t contain evidence of collusion between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russia. It said that Russia had penetrated our election system but not that it had done anything to manipulate the voter rolls or the votes. The leak exposed flaws in the system while showing that Russia was keeping its options for meddling open — just as they’ve done in other countries, and just as we’ve done in almost every country on the planet.”

Tonight the Let NY Vote coalition chose a powerful voting rights platform that includes: equity, accessibility, better administration of elections, security, accuracy of the vote count and youth voting! It's really exciting! Full Let NY Vote 2022 priorities are listed below.
The hybrid-ban bill (A1115A / S309A) will be one of the Let NY Vote coalition's priorities. It was chosen along with 2 other new bills. Congratulations and sincere thanks to everyone who helped!!! We tied for 1st place in the voting for new priorities.

Truthout: "This is a five-alarm fire, yet right now no elected Democrat is consistently sounding the alarm — This is DEFCON for democracy, yet the president barely mentions it…..To be sure that democracy will survive in the United States, Democrats must take seriously the possibility of this nightmare scenario and take bold action to prevent it from happening.”

We’re almost at Thanksgiving, and 2022 is right around the corner.

And yet - the Senate has still not passed the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, or D.C. Statehood.

So, we are stepping up and showing Congress and the White House that failing to protect our elections and the right to vote is not an option. We must get these bills across the finish line now.

Guardian: "Alexander Hudson,... said: “The United States., the declines in civil liberties and checks on government indicate that there are serious problems with the fundamentals of democracy.”...The organisation’s secretary general, Kevin Casas-Zamora, said: “The visible deterioration of democracy in the United States, as seen in the increasing tendency to contest credible election results, the efforts to suppress participation (in elections), and the runaway polarisation ... is one of the most concerning developments.”

Brennan Center: "The alarming success of the election sabotage movement during the past year, along with the audaciousness of its leaders, should have Americans worried about the health of our democracy. It’s wort...h noting: legislatures come back for another swing of the bat in January. We haven’t hit bottom yet..federal legislative action is the only truly effective answer. The Freedom to Vote Act, currently pending in the Senate, would prevent most forms of election sabotage.

Some cybersecurity is better than none, but with the limited resources for election administration in most counties, the idea that our voting can be protected from cyberattack is a myth. But don’t give up- there is one way to protect our votes, Keep a secure chain of custody and count hand marked paper ballots by hand, with representatives of all parties observing. Many people believe paper ballots are being 100% audited by hand to confirm the machine count, but in most cases, they aren’t.
Votes counted by electronic voting machines can’t be protected. The DHS itself was a victim of the devastating Solarwind hack. Protecting from cyberattack is excruciatingly hard. But it’s not that hard to protect our vote count. Count by hand all the paper ballots (hand marked by the voter) to confirm the computerized vote count.

The Hill: “In the course of our careers, many of us have analyzed the threats posed by unstable democracies elsewhere, never imagining we would begin to see similar threats at home. Sadly, that moment has arrived,” the wrote. “We have strong democratic institutions and traditions, but they are being placed in severe jeopardy in the current climate. We call on you to meet this challenge squarely and put in place the defenses that will safeguard the integrity of our sacred democratic institutions.”

Brennan Center: "Next time it won’t be so amateurish. In fact, Trump’s allies are systematically removing obstacles to stealing elections in states across the country.”

Support the Freedom to Vote Act

New York Times: "If you built a laboratory solely to concoct the most inept, opaque and self-dealing election board imaginable, you would have a hard time outdoing the real-life specimen currently functioning — or more often malfunctioning — in New York City...Alas, just as predictable as the board’s chronic incompetence is the refusal of elected officials to do anything about it. Why would they? Many of them are complicit in protecting the city’s twisted political machine that values insiders over voters and incumbency over democracy.

...The result is an election board that operates like a mafia without the guns. It is staffed with the friends, family members and other unqualified cronies of party bosses. It flouts city laws and actively resists serving the needs of voters in favor of a handful of political power brokers. Worst of all, it operates in an accountability-free zone where even the biggest bungles carry no consequences.”

WAPO "An army of poll watchers — many driven by GOP’s ‘election integrity’ push — turns out across Virginia...Poll watchers, or election observers, are distinct from election officers [poll workers]in that they are not allowed to assist voters in the polling place. As their names suggest, they only watch, while reporting any issues to election officers who can resolve them, or to party officials. Poll watchers are authorized by political parties or candidates, and up to three from each party can be in the room to watch the election unfold….Wheeler offered pointers on what to watch for: voting tallies that don’t match the number of voters checked in that day; anyone trying to influence voters; unauthorized people touching voting machines.”

"The 33 new election laws in 19 states will not fail. They are designed to replace the idea of democracy with a hierarchy in which a minority will determine our fate...And there it was: the replacement of the idea that all people are created equal with the idea that some people are better than others, and that those people, who truly understand God’s laws, should rule. “

"If the Democrats do not succeed in passing a voting rights law, we can expect America to become a one-party state that, at best, will look much like the American South did between 1876 and 1964.

"Our nation will no longer be a democracy.”

"more than a dozen states are preparing to use the machines [Dominion ICX ] in some elections in the next year, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington state

... the report details how a single hacker can easily develop malware and that could then be deployed to machines in private voting booths by people without technical skills..

... Halderman described how Dominion ICX voting machines can be reprogrammed to make particular candidates win by incorrectly recording a voter’s selections. And voters wouldn’t know their selections had changed, because the text on a printed ballot would still reflect their actual picks—while the QR code that actually gets scanned and tabulated by the state would reflect the altered choices.

COMMENT: A voting machine with QR codes and similar vulnerabilities is seeking approval in New York. Last year, the NYS Senate passed S309A that would ban such voting machines in New York. Let your member of the Assembly know that you oppose hybrid voting machines and support A1115A. Keep touchscreen voting machines with QR codes out of New York. Allegra Dengler