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To Deter Foreign Hackers, Some States May Also Be Deterring Voters (npr.org)
A number of states are blocking web traffic from foreign countries to their voter registration websites, making the process harder for some U.S. citizens who live overseas to vote, despite the practice providing no real security benefits. From a report: On its face, the "geo-targeting" of foreign countries may seem like a solid plan: election officials around the country are concerned about foreign interference after Russia's efforts leading up to the 2016 election, so blocking traffic to election websites from outside the United States might seem like an obvious defense starting point. But cybersecurity experts and voting rights advocates say it's an ineffective solution that any hacker could easily sidestep using a virtual private network, or VPN, a commonly-used and easily-available service. Such networks allow for a computer user to use the Internet and appear in a different location than they actually are.
Seems like the only thing something like this would do is deter voters. Hackers know better. This is a perfect case and point as to why people who don't understand computers, networks, or the internet shouldn't be making rules that govern it.
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Yes we want to be sure people who are allowed to vote should be able to vote. We don't want people who are not allowed to vote to be able to vote.
However the current trend of interference in the election isn't hacking the system and casting fake votes. But from foreign groups working hard to make us distrust our neighbor, who happens to have a different view of politics. And Radicalize you and them to prevent consensus to actually move forward.
If you are left of center, anyone right of you are racist bible thumping bigots who will avoid all science, and would let the world die just as long the GDP stays positive.
If you are right of center, anyone left of you are spoiled brats who just want freebees without contributing to society. Who would let society collapse just to save a tree.
We should know that both depictions isn't true for either group, while they may have some people who may go to those levels. However most people will be more reasonable when faced with the actual issues. But the media combined with other groups trying to egg on these differences really cause people to take sides, once they take sides, they will move from near the center and more firmly into the stupid Territory of their particular political leanings.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
All this bitching about needing ID's to vote is insane, no other country in the world is stupid enough to relax the voting requirements as much as some states do...
It's a great reason to have the state system the U.S. does, so the stupidity of one states voting system can only spread so far.
Before we can even talk about different kinds of elections in the U.S., we really need to firm up voting security across the board.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
How do you know you have security experts who have not kept up their skills and craft? They agree with the above report.
As has been shown in many reports and presentation in security conferences that yes it is easy to get around but it is one of the best way of dropping the number of scans, script kiddies, basic attack attempts, etc done against a system. That small cost is still a barrier, it will not stop some state run APT but it stop a large amount of those people running armitage against you and fillin up your logs and requiring some time to deal with. It also has no negative consequences if you are not doing business to those countries.
No, you ended up with Trump for a few simple reasons:
1. Republican voters were so sick of establishment politicians who routinely stab us in the back that we were willing to flip the coin and say "heads we win, tails we burn your house down" to the GOPe.
2. The Democrats ran a candidate who could lose a popularity contest to Elizabeth Bathory at an all female middle school.
Well, Jury duty isn't truly mandatory....
If you don't register to vote, then you are not put into the pool of possible jurors.
I"m not sure I like mandatory.
I understand your feelings behind it, and I would applaud more people participating in general, HOWEVER, I don't like a free country forcing the citizens to do something...maybe they don't like any of the choices, you know?
And also...if someone isn't interested enough in utilizing their right as a citizen to vote, to go register, and show up at the polling place, etc...I'm guessing they are likely also too un-interested to be an INFORMED voter.
If someone is un-informed, then I would posit they are likely to be more readily swayed by foreign propaganda as we have seen the Russians do, and I"m sure other state actors do (surely this isn't first attempt by foreign states)....
So, while I agree with your intentions on that, I disagree in that it might not be the best idea.
I'd rather have few voters that were better informed on what and who they are voting for, rather than a larger voter pool filled with many or most who don't know the issues or the candidates.
The uninformed are much easier to be swayed by exteral forces that might not have the US's best interest in mind.
At least those are some of my thoughts on it...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........