Thread by @ericgeller

Obviously most people's attention is elsewhere right now, but...

Scoop: Popular electronic voting machines contain a host of security vulnerabilities, @VotingVillageDC said in a report set for release today and provided first to Politico. Lots in here. politico.com/newsletters/mo…

.@VotingVillageDC has officially released the report that we brought you this AM, with lots of details about what hackers found in currently used voting systems: media.defcon.org/DEF%20CON%2027…

Press event starting shortly w/ @mattblaze @HarriHursti @MaggieMacAlpine @RonWyden @RepSpeier

Wyden says he will use report "as a kind of lodestar" as he tries to convince colleagues to pass election security legislation in the next few weeks.

"What I saw this summer — and I have literally been going colleague to colleague to colleague — ought to open everybody’s eyes."

The report's findings represent a “four-alarm calamity,” Wyden says. He adds that Congress needs to “end the days when the voting machine lobby calls the shots.”

Wyden: "We’ve got a really short time window. ... The next few weeks are going to decide whether we’re actually prepared for 2020.”

Wyden predicts that election interference by foreign powers in 2020 will “make what happened in 2016 look like small potatoes.”

"I’m going to take this report and I’m going to get it into the hands of every member of the United States Senate," Wyden says.

Speier takes the lectern and says, “I want to associate myself with every word of Senator Wyden’s comments. I couldn’t be more in tune and in step with everything that he said.”

Speier criticizes McConnell for blocking election security legislation.

"There is a concerted interest in allowing foreign countries to intervene in our elections. Just look at the whistleblower complaint that was made public today."

"We need more than your passion," Speier tells white-hat hackers. "We need you pounding the pavement around this country, making the case, sounding the alarm … that there’s something truly at risk here."

Speier says the best strategy is "scaring the living bejesus out of every member of Congress" about how the vulnerabilities in the system can be used against them.

.@RepJohnKatko, surprise guest, says cyber is "probably the number one threat to our country right now" and adds, "It’s clear that the bad guys are trying to hit our elections."

Katko: “A lot of these states and municipalities, they have terrible decisions to make: ‘Do we fix the potholes or do we fix our election machines?’ And what’s more tangible-looking to them?”

During panel discussion, @HarriHursti talks about the number of vulnerabilities in long-used voting machines that the vendors don't catch.

“The fact that you still find something scary new from the same machine is mind-blowing to me.”

.@mattblaze points out that the resources of the @VotingVillageDC — a small room and eBay — "are well within" the capabilities of foreign adversaries and anyone who wants to mess with the process.

Blaze says their report should spur action on simple things like paper ballots and risk-limiting audits, which are proven effective.

"The message of the Voting Village is not that our elections are in terrible trouble and there’s nothing we can do about it."

Blaze says "we would never expect the local county sheriff to repel a ground invasion,” but that’s what we do with election security.

"We are asking county election office IT departments to act as our first and last line of national defense."

Asked about the highlights from this year's event, Blaze cites discoveries about flaws in ballot-marking devices, the popular new replacement for paperless machines.

“This class of equipment deserves and requires far more study than it’s previously had.”

Unsurprisingly, someone asks the panelists about blockchain mobile voting.

Hursti: “Blockchain is a solution looking for a problem it can solve. It definitely cannot solve any problem which is meaningful in elections.”

Blaze adds, “It’s an extremely unwise direction to take.”