Editorials: Mississippi’s electronic election systems need to be protected | Lena Mitchell/djournal.com
Mississippians will be voting in less than a week in primary elections to choose leadership for governor, lieutenant governor and other statewide offices, as well as state senators and representatives who will make decisions about our state laws. We will be choosing who will represent the parties in elections for county officials from district supervisors, circuit clerks, chancery clerks, tax collectors, tax assessors and so forth, to county prosecutors and surveyors. All of the mechanisms we use to make these important decisions that affect our daily lives have come into question with repeatedly validated reports that our election systems are vulnerable to tampering by foreign influences. The report released last week by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed what all U.S. intelligence agencies reported in 2016 – that Russia has accessed U.S. election systems and will continue to exploit those systems’ vulnerabilities. The report said that Russian operatives have hacked election systems in all 50 states, stealing identifying information on voters in 16 states.