This morning, the Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing on “Russian Interference in the 2016 Elections.” This comes in the context of recent revelations from former FBI Director James Comey, as well as multiple leaks and recent reports in The Intercept, Bloomberg, Politico, and McClatchy, alleging widespread hacking of election systems. Some of these reports have claimed, without much information…
As news continues to trickle out about efforts of other nations to interfere and tamper with American elections, the line between working in U.S. elections and working internationally is blurring, as cyber-security and other issues require us to consider threats that go beyond our borders. It is timely, then, that for the past two days,…
1. It’s exceedingly difficult to hack or rig an election. Despite hysteria to the contrary, it is nearly impossible to hack or rig the outcome of a national election in the U.S., for several reasons. Election administration in the U.S. is decentralized. There are nearly 10,000 separate election jurisdictions in the U.S., using dozens of different…
UPDATED WITH ADDITIONAL DATA AS OF SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 Today, September 27th, is National Voter Registration Day – a day when non-profits, campaigns, and government officials from across the political spectrum join together to encourage everyone to check and update their voter registration, and register to vote if they haven’t already. In just a few…
We once again find ourselves in the hyper-partisan season of a presidential election, where both sides make claims about the process for political advantage while election professionals find themselves caught in the middle, trying to do a difficult job under intense scrutiny. This year, however, is different from previous ones in one critical aspect– there…
Thanks to the work of many of you advancing sound data-driven policies and technology, it has never been easier for almost all U.S. voters to register to vote, get election information, and cast their ballots successfully. Yet despite these improvements, voter turnout across the United States, particularly in non-presidential elections, has declined to historically low…
