Essay Example on Electoral Security Matters: US 2020 Elections & Beyond

Electoral systems and their security matter because they primarily influence significant government changes and dimensions. Thus, in any election, authorities in charge must take necessary steps to ensure that voters, observers, and other actors experience the process without fear of unfairness and insecurity. In 2016 during the US presidential election, controversies emerged that Russia had played a part in election rigging. In this year's upcoming elections, many lawmakers have also warned against the chances of Russia meddling to reelect President Donald Trump (Goldman et al.). These trends in the news about Russia planning to meddle in the election causes worry among voters about the integrity of the results. The lingering question is, "is it really possible for Russia to meddle and why?” Current controversies on electoral security evidently indicate that the US elections are easy to disrupt and hack and, Russia, a country with a definite aim to bring down the American democracy, is at the center stage of interfering with the 2020 presidential elections.

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Russia managed to plant distrust among Americans in 2016 and knows too well that the lack of trust in the electoral system is still the best way to hit America come November 2020 (Persily). According to CNN news, lawmakers were informed by the intelligence community that Russia interfered with the previous election and is trying to do so again in November. The report by the Senate intelligence community warning against Russia's interference shows that the US systems have been hacked before in previous elections by Russians, and it is highly likely that they are planning to do it again. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the primary weaknesses of the US electoral systems include the administration of voter registration databases and the tabulation of data (Wang 31). Drawing from the trending concerns about the US election, it is right to say that online voting is not able to save the US democracy now; however, allowing as many people as possible to use the internet for registration can significantly improve the process of voting. According to Wang, internet voting is a way of improving the voting systems, but the systems are not secure from hackers because proving the source of a cyberattack on a system is not easy (33). To save the American trust from being destroyed again by Russia, the electoral system has to change tactics to a more different one from the one used in 2016.

Another reason why the US electoral systems are vulnerable is that some states have earlier reported system failure in the past election, therefore, causing the public to have little faith in the digital electoral system. According to Persily’s article on The Wall Street Journal, on Tuesday 9th June 2020, citizens of Georgia state stood for several hours to vote to make others give up and head home. The problem was Georgia state struggle to tackle its primary election because of inadequate poll workers and polling places as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. This situation was termed by the Atlanta Journal constitution as an "Ordeal for Voters," meaning that the voters were the most affected (Persily). Thus, to save American democracy during the upcoming November elections, it is essential to get as many Americans as possible to participate in voting through the mail. To protect the 2020 election from interference by foreign countries such as Russia, states such as Georgia must ensure that there are plenty of polling places that are safe and easily accessible.

Additionally, some of the primary issues that pose a problem to the 2020 election are machine dysfunction and unknown cyberattacks. Throughout the 2016 presidential elections, a big group of Russians investigated the voter databases for any insecurities available and also hacked the Hillary Clinton campaign (Abrams). The group also spread propaganda on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and went ahead to stage rallies in Pennsylvania and Florida. Apart from the active interference in the campaign, the group set up meetings with the followers of Trump campaigns. According to the US intelligence committee, the goal of these disruptions was to impair Clinton's campaign, boost the chances that Trump had, and to generally plant distrust in American democracy (Sanger). There are speculations that Russia probably intends to use this same method but in more sophisticated ways to take Trump back to leadership-this only proves that the US electoral system needs better security. Trump and his supporters deny the claims that Russia intends to help him rig, claiming that the issue is just highly politicized and that the report by Director of National Intelligence in January was produced by intercept, which has been historically skeptical about Russia's interference (Sanger). The major issues that pose a problem to the 2020 election are equipment failure and unknown cyberattacks.

Though the idea has less support, the best election security to apply in 2020 elections is the paper ballot method and not technology method to prevent Russian from interfering. In 2016 elections, Pennsylvania county suffered a lousy failure in machines (Foer). In Northampton county, there was a software problem where vote tabulation incorrectly presented a judicial candidate win by an almost statistically impossible margin. However, the voting problem was sorted out because it was quickly backed up by paper ballots (Persily). With the highly politicized conditions of 2020’s election, so much attention is focused on how much secure the election will be. Americans still feel like if the Russians did try to hack a secured system in the previous election, and hacked Sander's campaign, then they may hack the 2020 election even more. The urge to hack results from the motivation of destroying an essential arm of the USA, which is democracy (Goldman et al.). Security of the election is much more important than the reality of the system, thus the need to go back to the paper ballots, which are less prone to digital manipulation.

If the election continues to go the electronic way, then one true thing is that voting machines are not the main problem anymore. According to Elly’s article on PC Magazine, attacking machine security requires a significant effort and needs maximum proximity (Elly). Some protection to worry about is the blockchain, which is susceptible to hacking. Disinformation is the main thing to worry about as a way of attacking the electorate. On social media, community groups such as those created by Russia in the previous elections are set to misinform and spread extensive propaganda concerning the ongoing polls (Elly). With the rise in the use of unmonitored social media, it is possible that disinformation will not stop soon and will be present in the upcoming election as it has been in the previous ones. The controversies in the media about electoral rigging can only come true if the system analysts ignore the most pressing issues, which is disinformation and not machine issue.

There is a higher chance that Russia will use some of the November 2016 presidential election tactics to fight the United States. Democrats believe that the game Russia intends to play in the 2020 election is the same but with different tactics (CNN). Sanger reports that analysts uncover that Mr Putin seeks to engage anything that will bring down the democracy and make elections seem unfair (Sanger). Intelligence has made it clear that Trump intends to get Mr Trump to be reelected because Trump is unlikely to pursue policies that bring down Putin's plan to restore Moscow’s soviet around the world. The fact that various social media attacks target the democrats explains more reasons why Russia might be involved (CNN). Also, the loopholes for an attack, such as the weak default passwords and encryption, make the election vulnerable for attack. One important question would be why Russia and not China or Iran as suspected in the 2016 election? Aforementioned, president Putin has, for a long time, shown interest in diminishing the stable democracy that exists in the US, and Trump, a Republican, being in the limelight for going against American democracy, would be the right candidate to use. Also, Russia, according to Atlantic Magazine, takes risks only a few countries can dare to take (Foer).

Conclusion

In conclusion, trending controversies on electoral security show that the US elections are easy to disrupt and hack, and Russia is the set to do it. After President Trump ascension to power, the Russian hackers understood that the first step had been successful in the quest to destroy the government's strong democracy. Having probed the state of the electoral system thoroughly more than the public understood it, they are more likely to cause undetectable mayhem on the election process come November. The best way would be the manual way of paper ballots; however, since internet voting is what is likely to happen, the government should improve their systems as it did with the voting machines, which are now considered safe. President Putin is sure to employ his best tactics through Trump and Sanders to disrupt the democracy with Trump on the seat and running again. From district, failing electronic system to the disinformation on social media, the electoral security could still be at risk of other enemy countries’ interference in their election. Indeed, Russians have mustered the weakness of the Americans and know just how to exploit them.

Work Cited

Abrams, Abigail. "Here's What We Know So Far About Russia's 2016 Meddling." Time, 18th April. 2019, time.com/5565991/russia-influence-2016-election/

CNN. "Russia is looking to help Trump win in 2020, election security official told lawmakers." YouTube, 20th February. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSEm4-SQBXs.

Elly, Max. "2020 Election Security: What the Experts Are Saying About Ransomware, Paper Ballots, More." PCmag, 29 Feb. 2020, www.pcmag.com/news/2020-election-security-what-the-experts-are-saying-about-ransomware-paper

Foer, Franklin. "Putin Is Well on His Way to Stealing the Next Election." The Atlantic, June 2020, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/putin-american-democracy/610570/

Goldman, Adam, et al. "Lawmakers Are Warned That Russia Is Meddling to Reelect Trump." The New York Times, 20th February. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/politics/russian-interference-trump-democrats.html. Accessed 17th June 2020.

Persily, Nathaniel. "It’s Not Too Late to Save the 2020 Election." The Wall Street Journal, 12th July 2020, www.wsj.com/articles/its-not-too-late-to-save-the-2020-election-11591973979. Accessed 17th June 2020.

Sanger, David E. "Same Goal, Different Playbook: Why Russia Would Support Trump and Sanders." The New York Times, 22nd February. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/02/22/us/politics/russia-election-meddling-trump-sanders.html.

Wang, King-Hang, et al. "A review of contemporary e-voting: Requirements, technology, systems and usability." Data Science and Pattern Recognition 1.1 (2017): 31-47, www.ikelab.net/dspr-pdf/vol1-1/dspr-paper3.pdf