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It stands to reason that there will always be a handful of election insiders or hackers willing to rig an election system for a price. When election insiders or hackers rig the system, this is called “election fraud.” 1/
2/ If election fraud involved an electronic system, it wld be difficult or impossible to prove bc:
* most election-system software in the US is proprietary,
* most US jurisdictions do not conduct meaningful manual audits, &
* it takes just ONE insider or hacker to wreak havoc.
* most election-system software in the US is proprietary,
* most US jurisdictions do not conduct meaningful manual audits, &
* it takes just ONE insider or hacker to wreak havoc.
3/ With electronic election fraud, it takes just ONE insider or hacker to wreak havoc bc critical aspects of these systems are centralized at the county or state level.
4/ The crucial centralized aspects of our election systems include voter registration systems, the computers used to program each voting machine in a county or state before each election, central tabulators (used to aggregate all precinct totals for a county or state), &...
... reporting systems. 5/
Vote by mail is also vulnerable to election fraud, as we saw when Republican operatives engaged in election fraud by collecting and filling out absentee ballots and applications from unsuspecting voters. 6/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/leslie-mccrae-dowless-political-operative-charged-in-north-carolina-congressional-race
Compared to electronic election fraud, however, this type of fraud has a higher risk of detection (which is good) because much of it occurs in the open and, if conducted throughout a county or state, it typically requires the involvement of multiple actors. 7/
We can also educate voters to protect themselves against this type of absentee ballot fraud by warning them not to give their ballots or applications to other people. 8/
“Voter fraud” is a different concept than “election fraud.” Voter fraud contemplates an individual (not an election insider) risking prison time to impersonate another voter. 9/
It is highly unlikely that hordes of individuals wld be willing to risk prison time for one measly extra vote each. The notion that many of them wld work in concert & not get caught is also a stretch. The larger the conspiracy, the greater the risk of getting detection. 10/
We should not take seriously anyone who says that vote by mail is a nonstarter, while giving short shrift to the more substantial risk of difficult-to-impossible-to-detect electronic election fraud. 11/
We are dealing with a pandemic and an array of imperfect voting options. The best we can do in light of the pandemic is to expand vote by mail while:
* educating the public to NOT entrust their ballots or applications to other people &
* implementing other safeguards. 12/
* educating the public to NOT entrust their ballots or applications to other people &
* implementing other safeguards. 12/
