Technically Speaking
By Perry Busby
Last week the US House of Representatives passed a resolution to open an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. The resolution, which passed primarily along party lines, came after several witnesses from the State department and national security and intelligence agencies came forward with testimonies regarding the White House’s recent actions toward Ukraine, a NATO ally, by withholding Congressional approved funds to aide Ukraine in their defense against Russian aggression.
With 52% of Americans supporting impeachment, the chances of the inquiry evolving into an impeachment hearing in the Senate is highly probable. However, the chances of President Trump being impeached is highly improbable. By all indications, the GOP-controlled Senate will not have the required 67 votes for impeachment. This is due in part for two reasons: Republican lawmakers fear being the next victim in one of President Trump’s Twitter attacks; and they’re afraid of losing their seat in a primary race. Additionally, there are a few Senate Democrats in Republican dominated states who may vote with Re-publicans if impeachment seems unlikely.
Whether you’re following every twist and turn of this political drama, or you’re re-pulsed by the lack of decorum and character on display by so-called leaders, one thing is certain, it has distracted us from fixing the one problem security and intelligence officials have repeatedly warned about: cyberattacks on our vulnerable and antiquated election system.
We are less than a year away from the next general election and little, if any, has been done to protect our votes. For their part, activists and grassroots organizers have worked diligently to register voters and challenge suppressive laws in courts. However, those efforts could potentially prove futile if we allow elections to proceed as usual.
Consider this:
- The top three voting machine vendors control close to 90% of all voting machines in use throughout the US. These same vendors are run by executives and advisory boards who have strong ties to the Republican National Committee and many Republican lawmakers at the state and federal level. Last, but not least, these companies contributed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign, and he paid them back by blocking any election reform bill that would establish any safeguards or preventative measures to hold them accountable
- Many counties rely on third-party vendors to manage and provide oversight of their voter registration databases. These companies and voter databases in 21 states were breached leading up to the 2016 election. Although many have claimed vote tabulations were not manipulated, no comprehensive auditing has ever been done on 2016 election data in any county or state.
- The number of reported voting irregularities, especially in predominantly African American and rural precincts, continue to grow. Cases in Georgia, Tennessee and Wisconsin have shown inexplicable downward trends in some vote counts from machines located in precincts with a large African American population, even though paper absentee ballots remained relatively the same. A similar analysis of voter data in Bro-ward County appears to show similar results. Likewise, there have been at least three reported cases of precincts in rural counties producing over counts. In one Georgia county, the vote result was more than double the number of registered voters.
- Divine intervention aside, Donald J. Trump will be on the ballot come November 3, 2020, and with that comes an election that is poised to be upended by chaos. All signs point to a repeat performance of what we witnessed leading up to the 2016 election.
Pretty disturbing, right? ow, tell me, how willing are you to trust the next elec-tion results?
Let me know what you think. Email me at perrybusby03@gmail.com. As always stay tuned to the Westside Gazette for more information about your vote.