Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/13/maryland-voter-registration-an.html
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I think that’s probably the one basic function of government that you don’t want to privatize, no matter who owns the company.
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That depends on who owns the government.
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Think the Russians are still holding a grudge?
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Aww, come on! What could possibly go wrong? /s
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But where would the kick-backs come from?
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Marylander here… News is strangely quiet on this topic. (Looks at article again…) Maybe because the CBS article is from July? However, this is the first I’ve heard of it (despite reading the Post every day). A better headline might’ve been “Maryland voter registration and online voting vendor still financed by Russian oligarch:”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/measure-seeks-to-protect-election-systems-from-foreign-foes/2018/10/11/c004a6b2-cd7a-11e8-ad0a-0e01efba3cc1_story.html?utm_term=.0ed793eaefd4
I also didn’t know (or, didn’t remember) this:
Maryland was one of 21 states with suspicious online activities before the 2016 election. In Maryland, the suspicious activities occurred on the state’s voter registration and ballot request system, the state election board says.
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fixed, IMHO
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Sigh. " . . .one basic function of government that you don’t want to privatize . . . "
I don’t know the exact statistics off the top of my head (and, sadly, I’m not sure anyone does because I’m not sure who might keep track of it) but a large slice of voting infrastructure in the US is already privatized. Maryland is not unique and, in fact, is hardly unusual. Nearly all states have outsourced various parts of our voting infrastructure. It’s not just the production of the machines that is outsourced, or the printing/design of the ballots, but the counting, the keeping track of, and so on not just of votes but registration, etc. is . . . privatized.
I mean, you are right, if you stop and think about it for five seconds, it’s not something that anyone should want but . . . it’s what we have. Sadly, at this point, I think it’s unlikely to change soon. The GOP is deeply invested in restricting voting–and making voting wasteful, insecure, manipulative, confusing, and so on is one way they can discourage voting. You might think that the Voting Rights Act or a range of other laws would, in the long run, stop the GOP from breaking down voting but now that the Supreme Court has flipped, it’s unlikely that things will get fixed on a Federal level and likely that attempts to fix things on a state level will be blocked.
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When broken doesn’t even cover it, WTF!
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Please tell me that the State contract for these services made it clear that the service provider could not be owned by a foreign interest?
Otherwise, I think its time to nationalize that Oligarch’s investment.
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Tax collection is another basic function people think government should protect, but they sold out a long time ago:
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