Technically Speaking: Time to Pour Some Tea!

By Perry Busby

Election systems and voter machines throughout America were compromised during the 2016 general election. That is a fact.

Many who follow politics and national news with some regularity will say this is old news. You are correct; it has been in the news since October 7, 2016. That was the day Jeh Johnson and James Clapper, directors of Homeland Security and Nationawl Intelligence, respectively announced that the Russian government was interfering in an American election.

In case some of you don’t remember, it was announced thirty minutes prior to the release of the Access Hollywood tape, with then candidate Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women and getting away with it and WikiLeaks releasing the first set of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Don’t feel bad if you don’t remember it. A majority of American voters got caught up in that media-aided sex and scandal distraction. If it weren’t that one, then chances are it was some other nefarious social media campaigns that were using analytics to deliver messages that would rally or suppress certain demographics based on posts or tweets they clicked like on or added a comment.

The last time you may have heard the government admit our election system was incapable of producing an accurate result was on May 29, 2019, when Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his press statement by saying: “[T]here were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election, and that allegation deserves the attention of every American.”

In the words of the late Dick Gregory, “That don’t tell you something?”

Before you shrug your shoulders and dismiss what I’m saying as a bunch of tech talk for nerds, let me put it to you this way: our election system is susceptible to attacks not only from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran but possible domestic threats as well. In other words, the system at the core of our democracy—that being the system by which we choose leaders—is, in its current state, highly susceptible to multiple levels of tampering, which will lead to inaccurate results or possibly, the assertion that results are inaccurate.

In either case, the result is chaos and the abolishment of a democratic norm.

Applying some necessary fixes to ensure better accuracy is an issue every voter, regard-less of party, should be able to agree on. It is also an issue every voter expects their elected leaders to endorse as well.

Well, that ain’t happening.

On June 27th, the House passed HR 2722, the Securing America’s Federal Election Act, or SAFE Act. It is a bill to enhance reliability and improve measures to safeguard and verify. The bill passed 225-184. Florida Congressman Brian Mast, who represents the West Palm Beach area, was the only Republican to vote in favor of the bill. Thirteen other Republicans abstained from voting on the bill.

The bill is now in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to ignore it. He says he will bring the bill up for a vote after the 2020 but now isn’t the time to address the issue because there isn’t enough time to enact the proposed actions and any attempt to implement parts of it would only create disruption and confusion during the election. Senator McConnell’s sincerity and concern escapes seeing as that he’s backed every legislation that sought to suppress voters, particularly African American and Latinx voters

Another interesting fact that many voters aren’t aware of, and many may find issue with is the top three voting machine vendors, ES&S System, Dominion and Hart InterCivic supply 88% of the voting machines and tabulators used in U.S. elections. These vendors and their lobbyists have been big donors to Republican candidates and their causes. Also, several state election secretaries have either held advisory board positions with these vendors, where they received vacations and other luxury gifts, under the guise of being meeting events. Some former state officials are now working with or lobbying for these vendors.

There has been little to no media coverage about the bill or any of the issues uncovered by forensic investigators, investigative journalists and election experts. This has left many voters in the dark on these critical details.

That is changing now. Stay tuned to the Westside Gazette and Technically Speaking as we uncover and breakdown the issues in a format that will help you understand the threats we are currently facing, the solutions we need to implement and how they will protect you, and the actions you can take to protect your vote.

Pretty scandalous, huh? Well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of unscrupulous activities and events surrounding our election system. Stay tuned for more poured tea.

About Carma Henry 24481 Articles
Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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