One in four United States voters say they will not consider voting in upcoming elections due to concerns over cybersecurity, according to a new poll conducted by a cybersecurity firm.
The 27 percent of voters who agreed with that statement mark a seven percent rise over a similar poll conducted in September.
The poll, conducted by the firm Carbon Black, surveyed 5,000 respondents and has a margin of error of just under two percent.
“There is no question, none, that the U.S. voting process is vulnerable,” Carbon Black Chief Executive Patrick Morley told The Hill.
Concerns over election cybersecurity could include hackers stealing personal information from voter rolls — something federal authorities believe Russia attempted and even accomplished during the 2016 elections.
“We have evidence of election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted," Jeanette Manfra, acting deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications at Homeland Security's National Protection and Programs Directorate, revealed last month at a Senate Intelligence Hearing.
Before the election, it had been disclosed that hackers attributed to the Russian government had successfully breached election rolls in two states.
Even if these numbers are off (and yes, I understand that a cybersecurity firm would definitely push a poll designed to scare up business like this) the fact remains that there was a concerted effort by the Russians to access voter registration information last year in multiple states, and that the Trump regime and the GOP running Congress right now doesn't seem to think it's a big deal at all.
If Americans are seriously considering not voting because they fear their personal info will be compromised, and they refuse to vote or worse, ask their current voter registration be removed (or allow it to lapse) then the GOP benefits directly from the chaos. Russia definitely wants us to be in a position where Americans no longer trust even the most basic functions of a working government. But the Russians can't get very far without using the party in power to demonstrate exactly why Americans should no longer expect free and fair elections with voting registration information being protected.
This is the kind of long-term, generational damage the Russians wanted to inflict on us. I say this shows that Putin's gambit may be one of the most successful operations of all time.
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