Thread by @jennycohn1

Dear @RoyBlunt and Senate Rules Committee Members: DO NOT use the withdrawal of support of the Secure Elections Act by one or more senators as an excuse to push through the current version of the Act, which you unacceptably WATERED DOWN, or something even more meaningless. 1/

IT election experts agree that electronic tallies cannot be trusted without, at a minimum, meaningful manual audits and a secure chain of custody between election night and the audit. oversight.house.gov/wp-content/upl…; stat.berkeley.edu/~stark/Preprin… 2/

Meanwhile, the following states require no manual audits whatsoever to confirm the legitimacy of electronic tallies:

Alabama
Arkansas
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Kansas
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
Maryland
Maine
Michigan
Mississippi

3/

Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin

americanprogress.org/issues/democra…

4/

5/ Independent election experts say that just two states (Colorado & New Mexico) conduct post-election manual audits that are sufficiently robust to detect hacking. editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacadem…

6/ Meanwhile, elected officials continue spreading the MYTH that electronic tallies can't be altered via the internet because the voting machines themselves don't connect to the internet.

https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/993708371940290560

7/ Another example of this dangerous spreading of election security myths:

https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/963200487271968769

8/ And another.

https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/929427743892062209

9/ Vendors like ES&S spread the myth too.

https://twitter.com/MarilynRMarks1/status/1019813727586127872

10/ Meanwhile, counties throughout the US are buying touchscreen barcode balloting markers like the ES&S ExpressVote, even though touchscreens have all sorts of known problems, many of which came to fruition during the recent Kansas primary elections.

https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1030931388613025792

11/ Enough is enough. Not only must you re-schedule a hearing on the Secure Elections Act, you must amend the Act to make it STRONGER, not weaker.

12/ Specifically, you must amend the Act to require that states (1) give voters the option to mark their ballots by hand; and (2) conduct Risk Limiting Audits (the only type of manual audit endorsed by @commoncause, @lwv, and @verfiedvoting) for every federal race.

13/ Senator Ron Wyden's #PAVEAct already has these provisions and is endorsed by @BrennanCenter among a growing list of others. So another option would be to take up that bill instead and PASS IT.

14/ Either way, you must pass a bill that includes (at a minimum) these two requirements or we will vote you out in November.

15/ P.S. We are still waiting for you to ask ES&S (44% US election equipment) where it installed that remote access software. Yes, we are following this too. Do. Your. Job.

16/ PPS. If (as has been reported) state election officials have lobbied AGAINST robust manual audits, those individuals must be identified so they too can be held accountable at the ballot box.

17/ We demand #ElectionTransparency, including as to the negotiation of election-security legislation.