Beware Of Hackable Paper Ballot Machines

Election security advocate Jennifer Cohn has issued a serious warning regarding the upcoming 2020 elections saying jurisdictions across the country are increasingly installing paper ballot machines that are still prone to hacking. In other words election officials are deceiving the public whether knowingly or not, when they claim that the paper ballot machines they are installing are hack-proof.

As Jennifer Cohn clearly points out, all these so called hack-proof machines do is generate paper summary cards with a barcode. Cohn argues that these barcodes can be manipulated as opposed to the traditional paper ballot where the voter actually uses hand and pen to make a candidate selection. Simply put, Jennifer Cohn wants the public to know that the paper summary cards are not “paper ballots” in the traditional sense because they are machine generated not hand marked. Voters need to be extra vigilant with their state election officials and insist on hand marked paper ballots because that is the only hack-proof way of voting.

Cohn specifically warns; “I am posting this video to warn the public about a dangerous new type of electronic voting system called a universally used ballot marking system that jurisdictions across the United States are recklessly buying in anticipation of the 2020 election. Although many experts are gravely concerned about these new universally used ballot marking devices, their concerns have flown largely under the media’s radar because the ballot marking devices generate paper summary cards that election officials and vendors have misleadingly decided to call paper ballots. But unlike traditional hand marked paper ballots which voters literally mark with their hand and pen, machine marked paper ballots can be hacked.”

According to Jennifer Cohn, the following states have already purchased these “dangerous” new barcode universally used ballot marking devices for 2020; Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Kentucky, California, Colorado, Delaware, New Jersey, Kansas, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Indiana. These devices are also apparently in the pipeline in Georgia, New York and North Carolina.

Importantly Jennifer Cohn urges the public to call their elected representatives asking them to support Ron Wyden’s PAVE Act, which apparently addresses this problem by requiring all jurisdictions to provide voters with a hand marked paper ballot option.

Bottom line, Democrats have to be especially careful in 2020. Republicans know there is a lot of attention being placed on foreign hacking of voting machines. Naturally Republican election officials nationwide will take actions meant to assure voters that they are serious about countering the threat of foreign hacking. It appears they have settled on these dangerous universally used ballot marking systems that are still very hackable but create the false impression among gullible voters that they are hack-proof paper ballot systems. Democrats and indeed the mainstream media must expose the truth behind these deceptive machines. As Yours Truly has repeatedly stated before, it’s about time the mainstream media started inviting the venerable Jennifer Cohn as a pundit on election security matters. This is way long overdue and quite frankly journalistic malpractice at this juncture.

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

Dems Must Not Lose Sight Of Rebekah Mercer At Emerdata

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that troubled data firm Cambridge Analytica will be shutting down. News of the data firm shutting down comes after weeks of bad press reports that it acquired data from Facebook users without consent and weaponized such data for political purposes, most notably to help the Donald Trump presidential campaign in 2016. One of Cambridge Analytica’s Directors was Billionaire heiress Rebekah Mercer who was a major funder of the Trump Presidential campaign and remains a major supporter of Trump Admin’s agenda. Beyond misusing Facebook user data, Cambridge Analytica has also been accused of employing shocking tactics up to and including blackmail in their efforts to win elections

Democrats therefore must not rest comfortably with the news that Cambridge Analytica is shutting down. Instead they must focus their attention on the new data firm where all the key players at Cambridge Analytica have reportedly migrated to. The Business Insider recently reported that the power players behind Cambridge Analytica have set up a new data firm called Emerdata. Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer are apparently Directors at Emerdata.

Disgraced Cambridge Analytica’s CEO Alexander Nix has also moved to Emerdata. An interesting addition at Emerdata however is Erik Prince, brother of Education Secretary Betsy Devos, who not only played a crucial part in Trump’s presidential campaign but is also a key figure in the ongoing Trump-Russia investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

It doesn’t take much curiosity to figure out that the same political chicanery these characters engaged in while at Cambridge Analytica will be replicated if not expanded to the nth degree at Emerdata. There’s no question but that Emerdata will be used to help the GOP in upcoming elections and certainly for Trump’s re-election bid should he run in 2020. Dems must therefore keep a keen eye on Rebekah Mercer at Emerdata. The Dem attitude towards Emerdata must also be #InvestigateTheMercers!!

UPDATE @4:08pm 5/3/2018–Turns out one of the Directors at Emerdata is a Hong Kong businessman by the name Johnson Chun-Shun Ko. Ko is the Deputy Chairman of Erik Prince’s Frontier Services Group(FSG). Also noteworthy, Ko controls DVN Holdings, a Hong Kong Financial Services company, which recently named Erik Prince Chairman. DVN Holdings, which Erik Prince now Chairs, is partly owned by The People’s Republic of China. This tees up a very provocative question–Could ties between Emerdata, Chun-Shun Ko, Erik Prince and DVN Holdings open up the U.S. to yet another foreign election meddling–this time by The People’s Republic of China? Stay tuned folks. Yours Truly  will keep you apprised on #InvestigateTheMercers!!

See related post:The Mercer Map-An Indispensable Tool In The Dem Toolkit

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com