It’s the final day before Election Day polls open for the crucial 2018 midterms, and I hope you’ll not believe a word about what you are hearing regarding who may or may not win or lose. In fact, for many reasons discussed on today’s BradCast, nobody actually knows. And, given the way we tally votes in this country, it’s possible nobody will ever know who won or lost, no matter whether Democrats or Republicans end up taking control of the Senate, the House or dozens of Governors’ mansions across the country. [Audio link to show is posted below.]
But, over the weekend, amidst one of the nation’s most hotly contested gubernatorial races, it was revealed by independent online news outlet WhoWhatWhy, that Georgia’s entire voter registration database is completely vulnerable online such that “even a low-skilled hacker” could compromise all registrations in the state via its online My Voter Page portal. The stunning security hole allows any voter registration to be easily changed — or even cancelled entirely — as recently as this weekend, just hours before Election Day polls open on Tuesday for our crucial midterms.
The information about the vulnerability, as the outlet’s Jordan Wilkie and Timothy Pratt reported first exclusively, came from an astute observer in Georgia who notified the state Democratic Party when he discovered the problem. In turn, the Dems notified U.S. intelligence officials and Georgia’s Republican Sec. of State Brian Kemp, who happens to be overseeing his own reportedly very close race for Governor against Democrat Stacey Abrams. By Sunday morning, incredibly enough — and without providing any evidence whatsoever — Kemp released a statement falsely accusing the Democratic Party of Georgia of cybercrimes, suggesting they had attempted to hack the state’s online voter registration database.
Shamefully, the corporate media ran with Kemp’s claims. It would be hours before the actual facts of the matter were picked up, if at all, by those same media outlets who could simply have read WhoWhatWhy’s original exclusive for details on what had actually happened in the first place.
We’re joined today by MARILYN MARKS, Election Integrity champion and the Republican founder of Coalition for Good Governance, a non-partisan organization which has been taking Kemp to court countless times over recent months regarding his failed oversight of the state’s 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting system, his voter roll purges of legitimate voters, and his rejection of absentee ballots from disproportionately African-American voters.
Her group was among the first to learn of the stunning online registration system vulnerability and help alert WhoWhatWhy to the problem. Marks details how Kemp — who has resoundingly lost several times in federal court over the past week alone — has pulled the same, almost identical scam on the public in the past. She tells me that this is at least the third time that Kemp has falsely claimed whistleblowers who discreetly reported vulnerabilities they discovered in the state’s electoral system are actually attempting to hack it. He did the same in 2016 before, six months later, the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Inspector General finally found that Kemp’s allegations were completely baseless. And he did so again in 2017, after a data researcher discovered the state’s entire voter registration database, voting machine programming and administrative passwords had been left online before and after the 2016 Presidential election with no security protections.
Then, as now, Kemp falsely reported the matter to the FBI as a cyber crime. Marks also had a word or two for the media outlets which continue to credulously parrot Kemp’s claims, despite the complete lack of evidence to support the allegations. Marks described the latest incident as a “total abuse of [Kemp’s] position as Secretary of State”.
All of that comes over the weekend, even as the Dept. of Homeland Security, according to the Boston Globe today, is said to have discovered an alarming rate of actual attempted hacks — some which they say have had “limited success” — of our electoral systems in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s election.
Next, a few words of advice about voting from Oprah Winfrey, before we open the phone lines to callers regarding why they will or won’t be voting in Tuesday’s midterms.
Oh, and here’s Jennifer Cohen’s article today at the New York Book Review, in which she quotes me a time or three regarding “What Could Possibly Go Wrong” both at the polls on Tuesday and on the computer tabulators which will tally ballots — correctly or incorrectly — in all 50 states on Tuesday night…
CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_GARegistrationVulnerability-MarilynMarks_Oprah_Callers_110518.mp3]
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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I fully expect MAJOR “red-shifts” on election night, wherever a GOPer wins in a race where they were previously behind or tied.
Ofcourse, without raw exit poll data, the shift will be hard (or impossible?) to detect.
But they WILL be there, in some areas, whether we detect them or not.
To paraphrase a common saying:
If every tree in the forest falls over at once, but there is no one there to hear it,
THOSE DAMN TREES STILL FELL DOWN.
“red-shifts” won’t happen everywhere.
But today’s GOP is especially desperate not to lose on Nov 6th, in order to avoid accountability.
The GOP will risk more than usual, IMO, to win tuesday.
Their operatives will be hard at work, out there in the darkness.
DonL @1:
Cynic.
Brad,
I find it impossible not to be cynical regarding
the behaviors of the GOP.
IMO, they will do whatever it takes to win.
And this year, under Trump, they will be willing to do even more.
Obama must have had absolutely gigantic majorities in 2008 and 2012, in order for the GOP to permit him to be elected, and back-off their fraud attempts.
In 2018, the Dem majorities will have to be at least as large, or larger.
When I see him speak about voting integrity on youtube, Bob Fitrakis sounds like he shares at least some of my cynicism.
In any case, I am not alone.
Tragically and depressingly, I predict:
LOSSES for Gillum, Abrahms, Beto, and Ben Jealous.
If san Diego uses touch-screen machines, then Anmar down in San Diego will lose as well.
I pray these statements will be laughable
come Wed.
My pride is of no concern.
You know my disdain for the Democratic Party’s corporate-centrists.
But I just feel the GOP is capable of anything right now. Anything to WIN.
If cynicism is expecting a tick to drink blood, then color me cynical.
Let me add a graphic:
https://i.imgur.com/lChUvlW.png
The truth is, I feel pretty rotten about being right (i.e. GOP winning close races for key governorships plus Anmar’s loss in SD).
I see Wisconsin’s Scott walker is in a virtual tie late in the counting in that key race.
Agains, I predict Walker will pull-out a dramatic, super-narrow victory, as GOPers nearly ALWAYS do in these KEY situations.
Nice to see Dems got their majority in the house, but that was predicted.
Is there ANY “raw” exit-poll data out there, anywhere in America?
Or, is that possibility gone forever now?
By 2020 we will be at war with Iran, and Trump will sail to re-election as a “war president”.
Mainstream Dems will almost surely support any new military expenditures Trump wants.
Honestly, I would far prefer to be wrong and a laughing-stock due to poor predictions.
But hey, maybe the Russians ran the whole show from Moscow on Tuesday? (Yeah, right)
Well thank God I was wrong about something.
Scott Walker is apparently OUT as Wisconsin Gov.
That helps to wipe a few of the tears away.
Also, Kobach lost in Kansas and the US House went D. There was much more to help wipe away those tears, amigo. Oh, and Abrams hasn’t lost (yet).