Mississippi Secretary of State Gibbit Hosemann issued the following press release:
Secretary Hosemann Remains Vigilant in Protecting Voter Information,
Urges Voters to Remain Calm Amid Security Concerns
Jackson, Miss.—The
Statewide Elections Management System (SEMS), the database housing
Mississippi’s
voter registration information, has not been breached by hackers.
Still, the Secretary of State’s Office is remaining vigilant.
Security measures protecting SEMS from unauthorized intrusion include:
·
Daily monitoring of the database;
·
Geographic exclusion of foreign IP addresses;
·
Maintaining a mirrored site in another location;
·
Maintaining back-up records housed with a third-party vendor;
·
Securing the database behind two firewalls and an Intrusion Prevention System;
·
Encrypting all virtual actions between an end user’s personal computer and SEMS; and
·
Contracting with a third-party vendor to test vulnerability.
“No
system is ever completely safe, but Mississippi voters can rest assured
we have taken every possible precaution in advance of November 8 Election Day,” Secretary
of State Delbert Hosemann said.
Circuit
Clerks and Election Commissioners with access to SEMS have also been
encouraged to take precautions, such as refraining from sharing their
logon
information with any other person.
Additionally,
the Secretary of State’s Office is in communication with the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has commended the Agency
for
its diligence in protecting SEMS information. The security measures
previously listed are redundant, and in some cases above and beyond, the
measures DHS offered to states nationwide to secure their databases.
Secretary
Hosemann stressed SEMS is distinguishable from the approximately 7,000
voting machines used in more than 1,800 precincts across the State.
Mississippi’s
voting machines are not connected to the Internet, and are therefore
“essentially calculators,” Secretary Hosemann said.
“The
only way to steal Mississippians’ votes is by physically accessing each
of the machines,” Secretary Hosemann said. “With the way polling places
are organized
and staffed, and the way our machines tabulate votes, it is implausible
that any individual or group could ever change the outcome of an
election.”
Mississippi’s elections are “free and fair,” Secretary Hosemann added.
“We
have a sound voter ID law in this State, trained observers, and
competent local election commissioners who are prepared for any
scenario,” he said. “As Chief
Elections Officer, I can assure the voters in Mississippi the results
certified when the November 8 General Election concludes will reflect the will of the voters in this State.”
State
law provides only local election commissioners, who run Mississippi
elections, and designated poll workers are permitted to remain in
precincts on Election
Day. Federal and state observers are also permitted to remain in
precincts, along with credentialed poll watchers present on behalf of
the political parties and candidates. Loitering is not permitted within
30 feet, and campaigning is prohibited within 150
feet, of a polling place.
20 comments:
I don't trust Daryl Hoseman and his other brother Daryl. Press release the other day that you can change voting address on-line.
No, you cannot. It doesn't work and the SOS personnel I spoke to said they hope to get it running by next summer.
Folks, we are going to have a lot of dead people voting in the upcoming election. It's happened before and it won't stop. What about the people who move frequently to northern states ( not people like you and I that have to work for a living) and are able to vote twice. Once by absentee and once in person. Yes, it happens. Has the SOS been able to address that issue?
Me and my dead grandpaw vote every year. It's kinda our thing to do...family tradition spending time together. Delbert Humperdink ain't gonna stop that.
12:35 it worked for me. Changed my registration when it was first announced from Hinds to Madison, about 10 days later got my registration card from the County.
Strange that a party that has a history of voter suppression is scared of a rigged election.
There hasn't ever been an honest election in Ms. This one will not be an exception. Really not any different than any other state. Never been an honest election in any of the other states either.
I got a post card from David Blount this week advising me of a voting place move. This is a notice that I should have received last election but didn't. The wording confuses the polling place with past polling places. If this had come out prior to the last election it would have been helpful. However coming out now just looks like Hinds County politics trying to confuse people who might have a hard time with yet another polling place.
^^Some racist remarks, love the one about people who "unlike you and I, work for a living, moving up north so they can vote twice." Pretty ugly comment. You obviously don't have much going on in your life if you live in MS and you are posting your filth on a blog.
How would Delbert know whether an election was safe, or run properly? His interpretation of what is proper ain't based on what the rules in MS say, its on what he thinks they should say. The Law according to Delbert. Its how he runs his entire operation.
Yeah, but a calculator has a screen that displays numbers. So, if you push the number 1 and the number 2 displays, the user can determine that a mistake (or malfunction) has occurred. No such mechanism exists on most, if not all, Mississippi's electronic voting machines.
Iran's underground nuclear production site was not connected to the internet, either, but somebody figured out a way to get a virus into the system a few years back.
If you are on the inside it doesn't matter if they are connected to the internet or not. There is always someone on the inside.
11:56, if you DO hold gainful employment you cannot travel state to state to vote like George Soros pays you to do.
In several states you can stay at home and be bused to many places to vote repeatedly. Pays pretty good for the effort put out. In Ms. people know it don't matter how many times you vote in anything except local things so they don't pay as well. Pay is not as good either.
I can't believe what some of you believe!
You all seem to forget that voting happens at small precincts. You forget that each party and each candidate has people on site to monitor what is taking place.
Please, one of you, try to actually do what you say is easily done!
Voter fraud has been found to be , at most, .0004% and is human error, not fraud. That's not going to swing any national election and few local ones. IF an election is that close, there will be a recount before certification.
The reason y'all believe in these far fetched conspiracies is because you haven't bothered to learn how anything works! And, you certainly aren't writing computer software or you'd understand how your computer will get locked out after one vote.
6:37, while you are right on some of your statements, you are also soooo wrong. Not all precincts are small - in Mississippi or in other states (remember, this is a national election). There are precincts in the metro area where over 5000 people vote - and there are others where less than 150 vote. I'll take the second group as small, but not the first.
Parties 'can' have people monitoring, but they have no authority to do anything except report what they see going on that is wrong. Generally it is too late unless to change the election results except in the case of a lawsuit. And those monitors are not there while the machines are being programmed and calibrated which is where someone could screw with the election if they are so desired.
I would love to see the statistic for your .0004% - which I would bet is a made up number on your part. I agree it is generally small and some is human error - but some other is true fraud.
The part where you are probably correct is that in a election like the one next month the difference in the vote total is going to be so big that the fraud that will exist will not be enough to make any difference.
Where you are totally wrong is your claim about a recount. In many states recounts are not allowed, and where they are they do not disclose fraud. If a vote was stolen, once its in the system it will continue to be counted through a recount.
Your faith in the software of these systems is overreach. The touchscreens came on the scene ahead of the technology in 2004; after Florida the manufacturers rushed to put them out after HAVA was law and there are plenty of ways to get into them. The safeguard is that you would want to have the desire, the time, the access and get into so many that it is not feasible.
As long as a person does not need an ID to vote there will be widespread corrupt elections. Ever wonder how many votes can be canceled out by one bus load of illegal voters? Ever wonder how many dead people are still voting? Ever wonder how many people vote more than once? Ever wonder how many illegal aliens vote?
Last but not least, ever wonder how many voting machines malfunction or are compromised in some way?
If you think there is an honest election in the U.S. you should be declared ineligible to vote.
Voter ID is a good requirement and those that argue against it are just pissing in the wind. But it is not a panacea and does not stop where most of the fraud goes on in elections. Mailed in absentee ballots and illegal assistance accounts for more fraud than an ID requirement has stopped.
Can't speak for Madison or Rankin County, but there are not any precincts in Hinds with 5000 voters. Maybe 3000, which is still too much. I highly doubt that Madison or Rankin are anywhere near 5000 since they are not nearly as gerrymandered as Hinds.
The number of voters really doesn't matter. If there are 3 or more voters it is a crooked election. I would be very suspicious if there was only one voter. That is how crooked our elections have become.
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