Thread by @jennycohn1

This is an overly simplistic quote. There are absolutely situations where a forensic examination of election systems is warranted. For example, the DHS shld have conducted such an assessment of Durham County, NC’s malfunctioning e-poll books immediately after the 2016 …. 1/

https://twitter.com/votinggeek/status/1425088182668828672

… election because the intelligence community had learned that the vendor, VR systems, had been breached. Instead, it waited almost three years, which was wholly unacceptable. 2/

We must not react to Trump’s lies by pretending that systems are more secure than they are or that only crazy people would have concerns. We must not back ourselves into a corner where we cannot examine questionable results bc to do so wld make us look like hypocrites. 3/

Criticize MAGAts for demanding “forensic audits” w/o facts warranting them. Criticize them for using unqualified partisans to conduct those audits & for spreading lies. But pls do not criticize the concept of auditing or even of forensic examination when warranted. 4/

Pls also don’t pretend that official audits are better than they are. There is much room for improvement as everyone who studies audits is well aware. 5/

In 2018, CAP gave Arizona a D grade on election security due in part to its inadequate official audits. (Ironically, Maricopa received higher marks than the rest of the state.) We cannot & must not pretend this away, altho I hope improvements were made. 6/ cdn.americanprogress.org/content/upload…

It was the GOP that blocked the #SAFEAct, which would have required truly robust manual audits for all federal races. Pls message THAT. 7/ axios.com/gop-senator-el…