Thursday, September 16, 2021

PA Republicans' Action Risks Voters' Personal Data

 

Anti-democratic Trumpist Republicans are trying any number of ways to retain or to seize power, as their electoral prospects dim as a result of demographic shifts. The vote "fraudit" in Arizona, voter suppression laws in Texas and Georgia, and the despicable gubernatorial recall election / coup in California are examples of extremist Republican hacks not accepting the votes of the majority, while trying to appease the mentally unstable loser who still leads their corrupt party.

In Pennsylvania, the Republican-led legislature is attempting to question the legitimacy of the election in their state that was won by President Biden using a data vacuuming approach that should make their constituents extremely nervous and angry:

"Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania on Wednesday approved subpoenas for a wide range of data and personal information on voters, advancing a probe of the 2020 election in a key battleground state former president Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted with baseless claims of fraud.

The move drew a sharp rebuke from Democrats who described the effort as insecure and unwarranted and said they would consider mounting a court fight. Among other requests, Republicans are seeking the names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, last four digits of Social Security numbers, addresses and methods of voting for millions of people who cast ballots in the May primary and the November general election."  (our emphasis)

The action is based on utterly bogus claims that thousands of ballots were cast by dead people or non-residents of Pennsylvania. Dems are aiming to defeat the move, but beyond that, they need to tell the people of Pennsylvania that collecting that data will expose them to security breaches and hacking:

"That's raising alarms among election and security analysts. They warn consolidating that information and handing it over to a private company for auditing could dramatically raise the likelihood of the data being leaked or stolen by hackers. 

'All of the information being requested by this subpoena is exactly what a criminal would need to steal someone’s identity and open up fraudulent accounts in the names of any of these voters,' Maurice Turner, cybersecurity fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy and a longtime election security advocate, told me."  (our emphasis)

With that message, the move by the Trumpists should blow up in their faces, if the consequences are made known to the public.  

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