OPINION:
Oh my, this can’t be good.
Four voting machines were reported stolen from a precinct manager’s car just days before Georgia’s special congressional election.
Channel 2 Action News said the equipment was taken out of a Cobb County precinct manager’s vehicle — and he didn’t report the theft for two days.
The machines are used by poll workers to check in voters and check off those who’ve cast ballots.
Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, said his office has opened an investigation.
“It is unacceptable that the Cobb County Elections Office waited two days to notify my office of this theft,” Kemp said. “We are taking steps to ensure that it has no effect on the election tomorrow. I am confident that the results will not be compromised.”
Cobb County’s elections director Janine Eveler said the data on the machines is “hard to access,” and voters and candidates shouldn’t worry — that nothing untoward can happen to taint the election process.
Hmm. Perhaps.
But you know what else is “hard to access?”
Information stored on Department of Veterans Affairs computers. But those computers were hacked and data for some 20 million or so veterans was compromised.
And guess what else is “hard to access?”
Medical data. Yet Anthem’s IT system was hacked in 2015, and roughly 80 million patient and employee records were compromised. Tricare’s was in 2011, compromising about five million military beneficiaries.
Ashley Madison, the adultery cheat site, was hacked in 2015, exposing 33 million user accounts that were supposedly safe and secure — “hard to access,” so to speak. eBay was hacked in 2014, exposing about 145 million users’ accounts, including personal information, to who knows whom. JP Morgan Chase, Home Depot, Target, Citibank — all professing “hard to access” data and security systems; all compromised nonetheless.
Not saying anything will happen to cause mayhem at the ballot boxes in Georgia on Tuesday, due to these stolen machines.
Just saying that when an official says not to worry, that a machine’s data is “hard to access” and all should be well — that’s worrisome in and of itself. It’s denial and deception.
And rest assured, the missing machines will indeed become a factor if Democrats don’t see their candidate of choice win.
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