Voters? Pah!

I’ve been writing a lot lately about the GOP acting like they won’t have to account for the atrocious healthcare bill because they won’t really have to face voters. Ari Berman, in a series of tweets, explains how that might happen.

* Hacking, maybe by Russia, of voter machines. There are still way too many places that use machines that don’t have a paper trail. Most states are now using vote counting machines more than 10 years old.

* Hacking of voter registration rolls. In 2016 there was an Illinois incident where voter records were stolen. Considering how close that election was it wouldn't take much effort to change enough records to change the election.

* The Election Assistance Commission guides states and communities to record all votes on paper, perform routine audit of ballots, and conduct threat assessments. But the House GOP voted to defund the EAC. The Russians will hack again, but nobody in Congress is talking about election protection. Likely because many GOP in Congress benefited from the hacking done in 2016.

* And, the old standby – 99 new voting restrictions introduced in 31 states. More states have restricted voting in 2017 than in 2015 and 2016 combined.

* 16 million people had problems voting in 2016. That’s 12% of electorate. The nasty guy won by 80,000 in 3 states.