“Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and a close ally of former President Donald J. Trump, is being investigated by the Justice Department over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him...” 1/ nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/…
“The 3 people said that the examination of Mr. Gaetz, 38, is part of a broader investigation into a political ally of his, a local official in Florida named Joel Greenberg, who was indicted last summer on an array of charges, including sex trafficking of a child and.... 2/
... financially supporting people in exchange for sex, at least one of whom was an underage girl.” 3/
“Mr. Greenberg, who has since resigned his post as tax collector in Seminole County, north of Orlando, visited the White House with Mr. Gaetz in 2019, according to a photograph that Mr. Greenberg posted on Twitter.” 4/
“No charges have been brought against Mr. Gaetz, and the extent of his criminal exposure is unclear.” 5/
Most composite polls in 2020 gave Trump only an 18% chance of winning. Trump screaming “rigged” re: his expected defeat is nothing like the legitimate concerns raised about Trump’s poll-defying win in 2016 or Bush’s poll-defying win in 04. 1/
Only a handful of jurisdictions require robust manual audits. Those jurisdictions audit only a few races. For all we know, Rs cld have rigged some of the Senate, House, & state legislative races in 2020. GOP Senate wins in MT & NC defied exit polls. 1/
3/ The presidential race was audited more than would otherwise have been the case only because bc Trump screamed “rigged” even though most consolidated polling estimates gave him only an 18% chance of winning.
The red flags re: the #GA06 election (Ossoff v Handel) & the public attention brought to them almost certainly played a key part in the court’s landmark decision that paperless touchscreens are unconstitutional. Those who claim we shld not discuss red flags do a disservice. 1/
2/ I wrote about the #GA06 election here. Change doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Those who think we can effect meaningful change—while pretending to be able to know that no one has ever hacked an election—are naive. jennycohn1.medium.com/georgia-6-and-…
3/ Fortunately, @MarilynRMarks1 stepped up to the plate in Georgia. But it was not easy.
“The [Georgia] secretary of state will no longer chair the State Election Board, becoming instead a non-voting ex-officio member. The new chair would be nonpartisan but appointed by a majority of the [Republican-led] state House and Senate.” #gapol 1/
2/ “The State Election Board, county commissions or a certain number of state House and Senate members that represent a county could request an independent group to conduct a performance review of their appointed elections board or...
3/ ..probate judge that supervises elections, defined in Georgia law as the "superintendent."
😳SB 202 “would allow the State Election Board to suspend the multi-person elections board or probate judge and replace them with a single individual for at least nine months.”
2/ In August 2016, a white hat hacker had discovered that Georgia had left its election system, including passwords, exposed online without encryption. Georgia’s election director didn’t fix it. politico.com/magazine/story…
3/ In April 2016 (so four months before Georgia’s election system was found exposed online), Kislyak visited Kennesaw State University, which housed the election center at that time.
Here are links to documents that I obtained from my public records request to the Texas Secretary of State. The documents slam ES&S’s hash validation security protocols. You should read for yourself. First up: Texas examiner Brian Mechler’s report. 1/ drive.google.com/file/d/1u5RM5P…
2/ Letter dated 9/24/20 to ES&S from Keith Ingram, the director of elections for the Texas secretary of state, advising that “our examiner noted that this issue could create a potential security vulnerability as a proper software validation cld not occur.” drive.google.com/file/d/1oDq5-y…
Texas examiner calling ES&S’s protocol a “gift wrapped opportunity to an insider threat, however unlikely...[A]n insider now knows...which file is not being inspected. It’s similar to a bank robber knowing that the camera covering teller #3 is broken.” 3/ drive.google.com/file/d/1Yr5bs9…