Thread by @kegill

Every news organization that reported "teen hacks election site" from DefCon earlier this month should run this @propublica @liliavchang story as a mea culpa.

propublica.org/article/defcon…

I'm looking at you, @politico, just like @electionland did:

https://twitter.com/electionland/status/1034086636278226944

Did you see anything in those original stories about adult coaches?

"Organizers provided [students] with cheat sheets, and adults walked the students through the challenges they would encounter…"

Kudos to @liliavchang for going beyond a media event
propublica.org/article/defcon…

Or that " …. students were working with look-alikes created for the event that had vulnerabilities they were coached to find." AND the mock (not cloned) sites "were designed to be vulnerable to a SQL injection attack, a common hack"

I thought not.

OR that ..."state election websites report voting results, they do not actually tabulate votes."

“It would be lunacy to directly connect the election management system, of which the tabulation system is a part of, to the internet,” @thejoshpit

I saw this once, I think.

Dear news media: stop writing "news" articles that are basically press releases for the person/organization sharpening its ax. Especially when the result is to cause lay public to lose trust without cause.

Are there issues with voting technology in some states? No question.

Should we all be voting on paper ballots, preferably a by-mail system like OR, WA and CO? Hell yes.

But antics like that at DefCon are unlikely to get us any closer to vote-by-mail with paper ballots, a much more secure, private and egalitarian voting system (when accessible accommodations are included) that is also less expensive.

Every state already has some sort of "paper balloting" because of absentee voting. And three vote entirely by mail (OR, WA, CO).

The 34 states with no-excuse absentee voting and parallel computer-voting systems spend more $$$ and there's more oppty for error. ncsl.org/research/elect…