On Election Day last November, dozens of North Carolina voters were told they were ineligible to vote and were turned away at the polls, even when they displayed current registration cards. Others were sent from one polling place to another, only to be rejected. Scores of voters were incorrectly told they had cast ballots days earlier. In one precinct, voting halted for two hours.
“Susan Greenhalgh, a troubleshooter at a nonpartisan election monitoring group, was alarmed. Most of the complaints came from Durham, a blue-leaning county in a swing state. The problems involved electronic poll books — tablets and laptops, loaded with check-in software, that have increasingly replaced the thick binders of paper used to verify voters’ identities and registration status. She knew that the company that provided Durham’s software, VR Systems, had been penetrated by Russian hackers months before.
“’It felt like tampering, or some kind of cyberattack,’ Ms. Greenhalgh said about the voting troubles in Durham.”
The Russian cyber-attack on our electoral system was far more widespread and sophisticated than previously disclosed, involving election databases, voter registration software, and other back-end systems in at least 21 states. Hackers also infiltrated 3 software companies that support voting systems. It appears these disruptions were intended to sow confusion and delays on Election Day, making it harder to vote.
For example, software used to verify voter registration failed at polling stations in North Carolina, causing major delays. Registered voters were told they weren't registered and others were redirected to the wrong polling place. Similar irregularities were reported in Arizona, Virginia, and Georgia.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to question Russian interference and contradict the intelligence community.
This was a clear and direct attack on our democracy. For the good of the country, we must protect our electoral system from foreign influence heading into 2018. Otherwise, the very foundation from which we build consensus and deliberate important issues will continue to be compromised.
By Nicole Perlroth, Michael Wines, Matthew Rosenberg
