Russian Hackers and the Loss of Democracy

Merriam Webster dictionary defines democracy as "a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections."

Since last summer, the American voting system has been under assault by a foreign nation. This June, Reuters reported that 21 election systems were targeted. Though a small number was breached, it takes only a few counties in battleground states to alter the election.

How can America claim to be a democracy if our elections are being manipulated?

What are we doing to improve security? Why hasn't Congress passed additional funding to help states secure voting machines, instead of focusing on eliminating healthcare for millions of those same voters?

Michael Sulmeyer, director of the Belfer Center's Cyber Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, was contacted by CNN on just this topic. He reports that, sadly, nothing is being done. He reports, "...it is concerning that the President's minimization and dismissal of Russian malicious behavior may disincentivize the government from trying to prevent that same conduct from happening again."

With 2018 elections coming, you'd think there would be a bipartisan consensus on upgrading election hardware and software to prevent further hacking. Sanctions against Russia have passed in Congress, but Trump (for reasons known only to himself) is threatening to veto them. In the meantime, he has instead appointed voter fraud conspiracy theorists (Kris Kobach & Hans von Spakovsky) to remove millions of voters from the system. 

So, we're plagued with an unwilling GOP-led Congress to fix security and a group of anti-voter zealots determined to disallow the number of registered voters. In the meantime, Americans will head, with glazed & confused looks, to the polls next year. Fingers crossed.


Sources:
1. Merriam-Webster.
2. Cartoon by Margulies.
3. Reuters, Volz & Ainsley, June 21, 2017.
4. CNN Politics, June 15, 2017, Liz Stark.
5. Huffpost, June 30, 2017, Sam Levine.