Matt BlazeNov 21, 2022

Those who follow me on The Bad Place have heard me repeat this a thousand times, but once more won't hurt.

Election security is incredibly complex, full of seemingly impossible tradeoffs. But disinformation about supposed "rigged" elections is perhaps the most serious threat to election integrity today.

The best defense is to learn how elections actualy work! Becoming a poll worker is a great way to do that

Also, this National Academies study is a terrific resource:

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25120/securing-the-vote-protecting-american-democracy

Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy

Read online, download a free PDF, or order a copy in print or as an eBook.

The National Academies Press
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 21, 2022

Also, any serious discussion of election security has to grapple with two simultaneous realities:

- there's no evidence that any US election outcome has ever been altered by hacking

- there are real, exploitable vulnerabilities in many parts of our election infrastructure

I've written a bit on what these vulnerabilities are and how to fix them, See, e.g., this brief article:
https://georgetownlawtechreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/4.2-p505-522-Blaze.pdf

Show threadTim KelloggAug 25, 2023
@mattblaze the engineer in me reads those statements and concludes, “there have definitely been election outcomes altered by hacking, we just have poor ability to observe that happening”. Is anyone else thinking along those lines?
Show threadMatt BlazeAug 25, 2023

@kellogh No. that’s not a logical (or responsible) conclusion at all. There’s some uncertainty, and elections aren’t adequately protected. But that doesn’t mean the worst case scenario has happened or that elections are meaningless.

This is not a topic to be too-clever-by-half about. There was literally a deadly riot because of frivolous claims about election fraud a couple years ago.

Show threadTim KelloggAug 25, 2023
@mattblaze “definitely” was a poor choice. As an engineer, I generally only see software systems when they’re failing, so I’m primed in that direction. I’m mainly pointing this out to explain why those two points aren’t the slam dunk you seem to think they are. Lack of evidence is not evidence
Show threadMatt BlazeAug 25, 2023

@kellogh no one said they were a slam dunk. Quite the opposite. There’s uncertainty, and we need to improve elections. But there’s also no evidence any elections have actually been compromised. That’s not clean or satisfying, but it’s the reality we live in, and that was the point.

If you want to place rhetorical games, pick another topic.

Show threadCykonot
@mattblaze @kellogh evidence ≠ proof
Jul 12, 2024 at 12:12amWeb