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Securing the Vote Protecting American Democracy (2018) / Chapter Skim
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2 Voting and the 2016 Presidential Election
Pages 23-30

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From page 23...
... administers the survey to meet its obligations under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to serve as a national clearinghouse and resource for the compilation of information related to federal elections. Data are collected at the local level by counties or the county equivalent and include information related to voter registration; military and overseas voters; early and by mail voting; provisional voting; voter participation; voting equipment usage; and poll workers, polling places, and precincts.
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From page 24...
... However, in responses to the "Survey of the Performance of the American Electorate," the only large-scale academic survey devoted to election administration topics, the vast majority of voters reported that they did not encounter problems at the polls or when voting by mail.9 This does not mean that there were not problems that occurred unbeknownst to the voter. If an electronic voting machine, for example, were to change a vote after a voter had completed the voting process, the voter would be unaware of the problem and have no reason to report dissatisfaction.
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From page 25...
... Jeh Johnson of growing evidence of foreign intrusions into state election systems and of the possibility of foreign interference. In June, federal cybersecurity experts noticed that the network credentials of an Arizona county elections worker, which would allow access to Arizona's state voter registration system, had been posted on a site frequented by suspected Russian hackers.
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From page 26...
... By "election infrastructure," we mean storage facilities, polling places, and centralized vote tabulations locations used to support the election process, and information and com munications technology to include voter registration databases, voting machines, and other systems to manage the election process and report and display results on behalf of state and local governments." 15 By September 2017, voter registration systems or public election sites in 21 states had been identified by DHS as having been targeted by Russian hackers.16 In May 2018, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a summary of its initial findings and recommendations regarding 14  Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "Assessing Russian Activities and Inten tions in Recent US Elections, Intelligence Community Assessment," January 6, 2017, p.
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From page 27...
... voting process and election results."18 Assertion of Illegal Voting During the 2016 Election Donald J Trump won the presidency in 2016, having received a majority of electoral votes.19,20 He did not win the popular vote, but claimed in late November 2016 that he would have won the popular vote "if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."21 He repeated this claim in a January 2017 meeting with Congressional leaders, asserting that between 3 and 5 million illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton.22 In response to the president's assertion, the bipartisan National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS)
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From page 28...
... The commission was asked to study vulnerabilities in voting systems used for federal elections that could lead to improper voter registrations, improper voting, fraudulent voter registrations, and fraudulent voting.  The Commission will also study concerns about voter suppression, as well as other voting irregularities. The Commission will utilize all available data, including state and federal databases.24 On January 3, 2018, after two meetings of the commission, President Trump announced its disbanding.25 The commission had been embroiled in numerous controversies, including a request for voter registration files that both Republican and Democratic state officials considered overly broad26 and questions about whether commission proceedings complied with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and whether its own members had been excluded from deliberations.27 The commission did not issue any reports before it was disbanded.
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From page 29...
... The DHS designation of election infrastructure as critical national infrastructure adds an additional facet into the election process. The following chapters describe U.S.
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Key Terms

  • voter registration
  • election infrastructure
  • election day
  • election administration
  • president trump

  • voting process
  • state election
  • election administrators
  • voter fraud
  • federal elections

  • popular vote
  • homeland security
  • russian hackers
  • russian government
  • russian malicious

  • senate select
  • cyber activity
  • select committee
  • information related
  • malicious cyber

  • voting equipment
  • national intelligence
  • voted illegally
  • initial findings
  • gain access

  • urged election
  • election project
  • election assistance
  • election turnout
  • states election


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