Thread by @SarahRiggsAmico

I’m proud to announce my endorsement of Senator @RonWyden's election security bill, the PAVE Act.

This bill would ensure secure & accurate federal elections by requiring paper ballots, which would be subject to the voter’s verification before counting. 1/
bit.ly/2YAKttl

The PAVE Act would prohibit the use of paperless machines, like those used in the 2018 elections here in #Georgia, where election security experts found deeply flawed vote counts that could have had a dramatic impact on the outcome of our election. 2/

In my race for Lt Gov, we saw a suspiciously large drop off of almost 160,000 votes, although those voters did cast ballots for remaining down ballot races.

As has been reported by multiple data security experts & news outlets, this is highly unusual. 3/ ajc.com/blog/politics/…

Drop off among absentee voters (#HandMarkedPaperBallots) was normal in the 2018 #Georgia Lt Gov race.

In other words, suspiciously high voter drop off occurred ONLY on ballots cast via Georgia’s DRE voting machines, which have been deemed vulnerable by cyber security experts.4/

Data scientists determined 2018 voter drop off from Gov to Lt Gov was highly unusual vs. recent #Georgia elections.

Additionally suspicious: drop off was disproportionately high in Democratic-leaning counties & African-American precincts.

Coincidence? 5/bit.ly/2WNlMZV

What we do know is that, at a minimum, part of the blame falls on the notoriously faulty DRE voting machines and a flawed voting system. Experts and voters agree — these machines have got to go. 6/

As I’ve said countless times, this isn’t just about the outcome of our elections — it’s about the integrity of our elections. It’s about the trust and faith the American people should have that their fundamental right to vote is being protected. 7/

The portions of the Mueller Report that have been made available to the public shed additional light on this issue — exposing the fact that in 2016, voting machines infrastructure in multiple states was hacked by foreign operatives with the intent of manipulating our elections 8/

We can conclude that this is only the beginning, and that Russian cyberattacks on our #2020Elections are not only possible, but perhaps likely, if we do not take swift and dramatic action to counter their efforts and secure our votes. 9/

Georgia Tech Professors Wenke Lee and Richard DeMillo have also endorsed the PAVE Act, even as their calls for #HandMarkedPaperBallots in Georgia have been willfully ignored by Governor Brian Kemp’s administration. 10/

Brian Kemp (whose time as SOS was rife w/accusations of voter suppression) denies the flaws of our voting systems.

His Deputy Chief of Staff is a former lobbyist for ES&S, a voting machine company eyeing a $150 million contract w/the state of Georgia. 11/ ajc.com/news/state--re…

A recent exposé by the New Yorker highlights the corrupt nature of the ties between voting machine lobbyists and political operatives, like Brian Kemp’s employees 12/ newyorker.com/tech/annals-of…

The bottom line:

We cannot trust our fundamental rights — our very democracy — to hackable, insecure, inaccurate voting machines whose makers are in bed with politicians for the sake of huge contracts that put profits (and political power) over people. 13/

Congress must take action to ensure the security of our votes in advance of the #2020Elections. The PAVE Act is the solution; it will correct the vast deficiencies of flawed voting machines, which leave us vulnerable to foreign interference such as we witnessed in 2016. 14/

American voters deserve to have voter-verified paper ballots, so they can have confidence that their votes will be counted safely, securely and accurately. Thats the America we deserve, and that’s the America @ronwyden's PAVE Act is going to ensure. I'm proud to support it. 15/