Digital ballots, outdated machinery leave us exposed to Russian hack round two

In the article titled “Digital ballots, outdated machinery leave us exposed to Russian hack round two” by Jason Smith on the news site, USA Today, the writer expresses his opinions on America’s voting system. The writer believes that during the recent presidential election in 2016, the Russians have made a move by interfering with the votes, which are known to be hacked. No confirmed evidence or proof has been shown that the votes were meddled with dating back to November. Knowing this information does not provide us any comfort because the system of voting that is used in America is weak and defenseless. Citizens cast ballots on voting computers that have questionable security on them. From the disclosure on the NSA document about the Russians Military Intelligence known as the GRU, the intent of the Russian government is now apparent to be after our country. The GRU hacked into official's computers and American election software vendor system, though the success of these breaches are unknown. Not knowing how successful these attacks were weakens our democracy.

The argument made in this articles is that the system America uses when it comes to voting is vulnerable and weak. By casting paperless ballots through voting computers, we delete any paper evidence that may authenticate the results. I agree with the author’s opinion about America's unguarded voting system that may easily be hacked because the security on these computers are not strong. The author is quite knowledgeable on the voting system used in the U.S. because the author took part in producing a documentary titled “I Voted?, which allowed  him to learn and gain insight on how weak our voting system is. He also provided the links to articles that he used to backup his claims. I think the author has two intended audiences. One of them are the voters because he is intending to inform the citizens who are voting about the reliability of their voting system. By educating the public, more people will realize the terms on which their votes go through and they may opt for a change. The second of the two audiences would be officials in the government who have the power to make changes in America's voting system.

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