Stella Anderson's Motion To Enforce Cyber-Security for Voting in North Carolina

Text of the motion made by Stella Anderson at the conclusion of last Thursday's state Board of Elections (SBOE) meeting. The purpose and the effect of her motion were discussed here, also last Thursday, and the particulars of the 3-2 vote that passed it.

It's technical and specific in forcing the state to verify certain safety checks on electronic voting machines:

State Board staff shall provide documentation of the State’s post-EAC testing/examination to meet each of the following requirements of G.S. 163A-1115 (e):The State Board’s (or independent expert’s) review of the vendors’ source code in the following required areas of focus:

• Security

• Application vulnerability

• Application code

• Wireless security

• Security policy and processes

• Security/privacy program management

• Technology infrastructure and security controls

• Security organization and governance

• Operational effectiveness

If documentation is unavailable, please provide the rationale, or waiver granted.

• Provide documentation of source code delivery placed in escrow (when delivered, current custody).

• State Board staff shall also provide a response to the following: NCSBE’s Elections Systems Certification Program – 3.4.1.1 states “The voting system or equipment must meet the requirements contained in the most recent version or versions of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) currently accepted for testing and certification by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).” Why would NCSBE certify equipment EAC-certified under VVSG 1.0 (2005), rather than VVSG 1.1 (2015)?

Today's SBOE Action -- Republican Members Continue To Line Up Against Voting Machine Security

BREAKING NEWS
SBOE Chair Damon Circosta reluctantly agreed to vote for Democrat Stella Anderson's motion -- which passed 3-2 -- for SBOE staff to properly test and subsequently ensure that all NC-approved voting machines meet the security requirements of state and federal law. I say "reluctantly" because Mr. Circosta started the discussion by stating he thought the motion might be better contained in a "directive" to the staff. Anderson wanted a vote of the Board, and she got it.

Her motion was much more technical and involved than the first sentence above reflects, but I think I caught the gist of it.

Lynn Bernstein of Transparent Elections had charged that "NC didn't follow their own requirements for certification of election systems. This cannot be disregarded by the state and will not be ignored by election security advocates & voters." Anderson's motion would appear to be reaction to that charge, and is commendable anyway for trying to ensure that ESandS voting machines, for example, are not merely safe but really most sincerely safe.

The two Republican members of the SBOE -- David Black and Ken Raymond -- voted against Anderson's motion and offered no reasons for their votes.

The meeting was conducted via telephone, and no public comments were taken.

Gutless Wonder Gets Support from Headless Horseman

NC Republican Senator Thom Tillis wrote an op-ed on February 25 condemning Twitterman’s announced plan to redirect federal funds to border walls in defiance of Congress. Sen. Tillis said his conscience required him to put principle over party.

Two weeks later the senator abandoned his principles and publicly endorsed Trump's plan.

Trump then paid off Tillis in June, telling his nearly 64 million Twitter followers that Tillis had “really stepped up to the plate.” (When he can't get dictators to fawn over, Trump'll love up on abject toadies who kiss his ass.)

So, natch, Tillis appears to be floundering in his reelection bid. He may not even make it to November. Conservative Garland Tucker is challenging him in the March primary and seems to be gaining traction. Nobody loves Tillis, except maybe the former executive director of the NC GOP, Dallas Woodhouse.

So today, Twitterman throws Tillis another bone (life-raft?) by injecting partisanship into Hurricane Dorian preparations. Trump tweeted that he was granting an Emergency Declaration to North Carolina because Tillis requested it, thereby dissing Governor Roy Cooper who requested it. A governor of a state has to request an Emergency Declaration, not a stupid senator.

It was a lame-ass move to boost up Tillis, FWIW -- which ain't much.

The Postman Turned On His Magic Beam: SBOE Gets a Letter

Damon Circosta

The State Board of Elections (SBOE) will meet this Thursday, September 5th. It's not gonna be a quiet meeting (see below for how to hear it). Turns out, there's gonna be plenty pressure on it from a coalition of election security advocates alleging that North Carolina law was not followed in the August 23rd vote of the board to certify the voting equipment of ESandS and two other vendors. The advocates, including Lynn Bernstein of Cary, have written a strongly worded letter to Chair Damon Circosta and to the other four members urging them to revisit that vote.

They say that certain electronic voting equipment isn't safe from hacking. Damon Circosta claims it is. The letter warns that the rights of the people to fair elections isn't being properly shielded, and those rights should come first, and pronto.

"The certification of the voting systems occurred August 23, only 10 days ago. The State Board should immediately revisit the decision before counties and vendors expend resources and make expensive irreversible decisions based on flawed certifications."

To recap recent history: It was a surprise 3-2 SBOE decision on August 23rd, with newly appointed Democratic Chair Circosta joining the two Republican members in opposing a motion made by Democrat Stella Anderson to demand voter-readable proof of ballot choices from electronic machinery. Anderson and fellow Democrat Jeff Carmon were voted down. Virtually every progressive in the state went "Huh?" Some went stronger. It's written up here. 

Advocates who signed the letter:

Marilyn Marks, Coalition for Good Government, Charlotte
Susan Greenhalgh, National Election Defense Coalition, New York
Lynn Bernstein, Transparent Elections NC, Cary

They ask that the hearing on Thursday not limit public comment and that each speaker -- many of them experts who'll be brought in by the advocate groups listed above -- be given 3 minutes instead of 2.

In its most potentially litigious passage, the letter warns the board that excessive use of closed attorney-client meetings, with the public shut out of the discussion, will be challenged:

"...There is no pending litigation that would justify closed door litigation strategy discussions with the Board’s attorneys. The topics that are so sensitive as to require private sessions are quite limited when it comes to the public’s voting systems. Any attempt to liberally construe the Board’s opportunity to conduct executive sessions without strict compliance with the law will be carefully monitored and subject to legal challenge."

If stuff gets discussed in executive sessions, it'll take a whistle-blower on the inside to demand the sun shine in. No one on the outside of those meetings will know what's being said.

NOTE

The meeting in Raleigh on Thursday is at 1:00 pm in the Dobbs Building. Anyone can listen by phone, and it's free: Dial: (415) 655-0052 and enter on prompt the Code: 212-929-441.

State Judges Order Redistricting of General Assembly Seats Because of "Extreme Partisan Gerrymandering"

A three-person panel of North Carolina trial judges yesterday whacked the Republican General Assembly upside the head over their most recent gerrymandering of NC House and Senate districts, saying the legislators took "extreme advantage" in drawing voting districts to help elect a maximum number of Republican lawmakers and in the process violated the state constitution's guarantee of free speech and association. The ruling was unanimous and included one Republican judge from Iredell County.

Recently, the US Supremes said that partisan gerrymandering was beyond their powers and said it was up to the states to determine when gerrymandering gets so bad that reasonable men and women have to do something about it.

The ruling yesterday applied to the most recent redistricting in 2017 that was mandated by Federal courts because of extreme racial gerrymandering. The Republicans in the General Assembly answered that court order by doing a different kind of extreme gerrymandering, because they're termites who never lose their taste for the sweet, sweet wood of democracy.

The judges gave the Republicans only two weeks -- until September 18 -- to redraw the maps. Specifically, the ruling applies to nearly half of the state's 120 House districts and 21 of its 50 Senate districts.

Furthermore, the judges imposed new rules on the mapmaking apparently based on past Republican behavior: "The new mapmaking must start from scratch, all map-drawing must occur at public hearings with computer screens visible to everyone, and any consultants hired by lawmakers must be approved by the court." Ouch. (Source: Emery P. Dalesio)

Remarkably, Republican boss on the NC Senate Phil Berger is quoted in this morning's News and Observer saying he doesn't plan to appeal the ruling and that he and his boys would begin redrawing the maps.

This ruling will greatly reshuffle the 2020 elections, and many potential candidates will be studying the new maps like treasure-seekers.

Another 2019 Bellwether Election: Governor of Kentucky

Republican Matt Bevin is the Governor of Kentucky. Elected in 2015, he's coming to the end of his first term. Used to be ... Kentucky didn't allow their governors a second term, but that was repealed in 1992. So Bevin is running for reelection as a rare bird, as only the third Republican Governor of Kentucky since World War II. The only Republican governor before him who was eligible for reelection to a second term, Ernie Fletcher, was defeated by Democrat Steve Beshear in 2007. One-term-and-out. That's the pattern for Republican governors of Kentucky, and Gov. Bevin looks right now like he ain't gonna deviate from the pattern.

According to Patrick Caldwell, Bevin's reelection campaign is "flailing." He's unpopular -- last listing I saw said Bevin's approval rating is at 33% -- and he's pissed off the lieutenant governor (a fellow Republican), the attorney general (a Democrat, son of the last Democratic governor, and the man running against him this year) and worst of all, he pissed off Kentucky's teachers.

A lot of the establishment Kentucky Republican Party doesn't like him either. His first dive into Kentucky Republican politics -- as an acid-washed Tea Partier in 2014 -- was to challenge the supremacy of Mitch McConnell. Yes, Bevin ran against McConnell in the Republican primary and got his ass whipped good. McConnell beat him by 25 points after calling him an “East Coast con man” (Bevin's a native of New Hampshire. No kidding). Bevin got so mad at McConnell's counterattacks he refused to endorse McConnell for the fall election. That kind of shit leaves stains. Bevin whined: “You can’t punch people in the face, punch people in the face, punch people in the face, and ask them to have tea and crumpets with you and think it’s all good.” Make a note of the whining. It'll show up again.

How to put this nicely? Bevin is amazingly trumpy. (His introductory campaign ad is about Twitterman almost as much as it's about Bevin.) He casually reveals his prejudices even while pretending empathy for people he clearly has zero interest in. Here he was in July, in that section of town:

✔

Enjoyed meeting the members of the West Louisville Chess Club at Nativity Academy at St. Boniface...Incredible kids with incredible minds. #WeAreKY

158

12:02 PM - Jul 10, 2018

Twitter Ads info and privacy

295 people are talking about this

Ignorance just naturally goes nicely as a side-dish to open prejudice. Bevan's an aggressive anti-vaxxer. He blamed video games for the Parkland school shooting. He can be a jerk and whine at the same time (Facebook video where he goes on and on about how unfair the attacks on him are). His own Republican lieutenant governor is suing him. “Pray for me as I battle dark forces,” she tweeted. Bevin retaliated and dropped her from his ticket. He was booed at the Kentucky Derby last May.

"But Bevin’s biggest mistake may be spending the past two years picking fights with public school teachers. He successfully pushed a law to allow charter schools, saying he wanted to 'end the monopoly that exists in Kentucky’s school system,' and he’s attempted to weaken pension benefits for public employees" (Patrick Caldwell). As teachers pushed back, they got organized and they got strong. They joined other striking teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona in 2018 and essentially shut down a special session Bevin called of the legislature, a special session dedicated to cutting teacher pensions. Teachers gathered by the hundreds in the state capitol in Frankfort, and the legislature folded -- just like that. They went home, their tails tucked. Through all the teacher protest, Bevin responded by insulting ever more people in ever more personal ways.

Here's the kicker: According to a past president of the Kentucky Education Association, more than half of KEA's members are Republicans. They belong to Republican families -- sometimes extended families -- in Kentucky's grassroot counties. The biggest local employer is the school system in many of those counties. If teachers take a disliking to you, you might begin to smell like toast.

Bevin's Democratic Opponent This November

Andy Beshear is the elected Attorney General of Kentucky, and as such, he's spent a fair amount of his time challenging Governor Bevin's initiatives in court. He came to the aid of higher education and of public school teachers, defending them from what he said in court was Bevin's overstepping his constitutional role. Now they're in a virtual death-match for governor.

The 42-year-old Andy is son of Steve Beshear, the last Democratic governor (who incidentally got reelected to a second term). He's no flaming liberal. He's got an 86% rating by the NRA. And if anything he's in the pro-business branch of the Democratic Party. As a young lawyer (UVa School of Law), he represented the developers of the Blue Grass Pipeline through the state, and those were fracking dollars. But he's also repeatedly sued opioid manufacturers on behalf of the victims, and he's defended Obamacare, which was initially responsible for getting thousands of people insured before Gov. Bevin started yanking the rug out.

He might be the brand of business-friendly, gun-friendly yet crusading attorney that can win in conservative Kentucky. While governor for two terms, his father built up a Democratic support network that no doubt benefits the son. Hard to put a dollar value on that network.

Most recent poll I've seen (Gravis Marketing) has Bevin leading Beshear by 6 points, but with Beshear doing better than Bevin among women and college-educated voters. That overall lead for Bevin doesn't comport with a 33% approval rating, and as we near November, I expect to see that 6-point lead shrink. If Bevin loses, it'll be seen as a bellwether for Trump's 2020 prospects.

The 125th Labor Day

Today is the 125th official national Labor Day. It was created as a federal holiday by Congress in 1894, though it had been celebrated by organized labor unions since at least 1882 and was recognized as a holiday by the state of Oregon in 1887 (those West Coast lib'ruls!).

It was created to celebrate the working men and women -- as opposed to The Bosses and the 1% -- who built the nation and kept it running. Its creation was testimony to the growing strength in the late 19th century of the union movement, in which workers banded together to demand better working conditions and living wages. Early Labor Day celebrations always featured large parades of union members demonstrating their allegiances and their solidarity.

Although many individual states followed the lead of Oregon after 1887 and declared their own state holidays to honor workers, the last-straw impetus for the federal holiday followed closely on the heels of the May 11, 1894, Pullman railway sleeping car strike outside Chicago. Employees of mastermind George Pullman went on strike over wages and were joined in a show of solidarity by the American Railway Union — 150,000 strong and led by famous socialist Eugene Debs. The strikers refused to operate Pullman train cars, snarled mail delivery, and prompted President Grover Cleveland to send in federal troops to break up the strike. Rioting and arson broke out, and it evolved into what’s now considered one of the bloodiest episodes in American labor history.

Labor Day as a federal holiday passed Congress within weeks, a kind of sop thrown at workers following the use of troops to put them down.

Who Produced This Campaign Video? It's Genius!

Here's M.J. Hegar's "(Re)Introduction" for her campaign for US Senate in Texas against John Cornyn ... just because I can't stop watching it and because it's the new gold standard for what candidate videos ought to accomplish -- personality over prescription. It's even better than her "Doors" introduction when she ran for Congress in 2018.





Of course, M.J. Hegar has a primary to get through to take on Cornyn (on March 3rd, Super Tuesday), and she's up against some other strong Democrats (at least seven others, at last count, with more in the wings still considering it).

Good videos don't necessarily translate to votes, but they certainly don't hurt. They can help people decide to write checks, if nothing else.

FOOTNOTE
I'm told that Putnam Partners did the video, which probably means that North Carolina's own Frank Eaton had a hand in it.

Don't Do It, Jon, Or If You Do It, Do It Better

Photo: Dustin Chambers, Ossoff for Congress

Maybe you'll recall Georgia insurgent Democrat Jon Ossoff who ran the most expensive US House election ever (up to that time) for the 6th Congressional District seat in 2017. We gave him space here in March 2017. It was a special election for a vacant seat and the first of what would become a series of special elections in which Democrats won what should have been very Red seats. But Ossoff ended up losing to Republican Karen Handel by a fairly narrow margin. Karen Handel went on to lose her so recently gained seat to Democrat Lucy McBath in November 2018.

Maybe there was a lesson in that: Lucy McBath was a bold progressive, making gun control her signal issue. Jon Ossoff had, by contrast, run a "Republican lite" campaign in 2017. Said a decidedly more-progressive-observer-than-Ossoff, “He didn’t have a core progressive message and that ultimately is why he lost. The Democratic party could spend $100m and he would still lose. Because he didn’t stand for anything."

Democrats have empty suits the same as Republicans.

Now news reaches us this morning that Ossoff is seriously considering a run for the Georgia Senate seat that Johnny Isakson is resigning from.

Oof. What went wrong in 2017 for Ossoff might just as likely go wrong in 2020, but on a bigger scale.