Russian Meddling

With all of the stewing about “Russian meddling” in the U. S. electoral process, there’s been relatively little reflection on what we should do about it.

I oppose meddling in the political processes of other countries not merely by the Russians but by any other country and IMO our first action should be to stop our own meddling in the electoral processes of other countries. It’s a simple guideline but one which seems to have eluded most.

Then we need to change our voting processes. I’ve studied the systems used in the United States. I understand them and the organizational structures that support them. In the aftermath of the 2000 election I was the chief informant and part of the design team for an award-winning voting machine so I have at least a little authority in this area.

We can use electronic, electro-mechanical, or purely pen-and-ink voting systems but we cannot use systems that have any sort of network connectivity without opening ourselves up to unacceptable levels of risk, one of the most important of which is the risk of a loss of confidence in our systems. Online systems should be prohibited by law. They are inherently insecure and too easy to defraud.

The systems we use should be simple enough for the people who will be using them, easy to tabulate, and auditable. The system we designed had all of those characteristics.

Securing ourselves against psychological operations like those in which the Russians engaged is more difficult. We should treat them as seriously as we would throwing a hand grenade into a classroom.

We might want to adopt rules more like Germany’s and prohibit political advertising in the period immediately prior to the election. You could reduce the affront to the First Amendment by prohibiting taking money for political advertising or politicking in the month or six weeks prior to an election.

We should rely more on retail politics and much less on wholesale politics. Reliance on wholesale politics leaves us open to psy ops.