San Diego-area political science professors pointed out the most concerning aspect of the Mueller Report had nothing to do with the president but rather, the security of our elections.
“Undermining the integrity of the system,” explained Evan Crawford, Assistant Political Science Professor at the University of San Diego. “Shaking our faith that the results are going to be the results.”
UC San Diego Professor Thad Kousser pointed out that behind the debate over alleged obstruction and collusion, we find hundreds of pages in the Mueller Report discussing a foreign government attacking our election systems.
“This is an unprecedented attack on America’s Democratic institutions,” Kousser said.
“We have never had a foreign government essentially try to invade our elections at the same scale and with the same success that Russia had.”
The report details Russian social media ploys and hacking and social media posts not only bashing candidates but also bashing election legitimacy.
There was hacking not only into partisan groups and campaigns but also into local and state governments, targeting elections.
Crawford believes eroding confidence in our election systems is the most concerning aspect of the report.
“We have no reason to believe they’re not going to continue to keep doing it,” he adds.
Local
So what is California doing about it?
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said our voting systems are safe, in part, because we require paper ballots.
“We keep our voting system offline to make it impossible to systematically hack or rig an election,” Padilla said.
Adding in partnership with our counties, there is added cyber security training for election officials and even poll workers.
Padilla said the state has doubled down on security.
“By all measures, 2016 was a safe and secure election, 2018 was a safe and secure and smooth election and we’re prepared to deliver the same in 2020,” Padilla said.
