McConnell Received Donations from Voting Machine Lobbyists Before Blocking Election Security Bills

[ancianita]

This is American democracy's structural problem, folks. By design.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mitch-mcconnell-received-donations-from-voting-machine-lobbyists-before-blocking-election-security-bills/ar-AAEUGcx?ocid=spartanntp&fbclid=IwAR17TKRxNCc5maJwIf8-xHY1FfpA3lD0S2KlBhwKZEMNVwbW083AaIW2OMc

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck lobbyist David Cohen, who has worked on behalf of Dominion Voting Systems this year, donated $2,000 to McConnell during this time. Brian Wild, who works with Cohen and has also lobbied Dominion, gave McConnell $1,000.

"It's not surprising to me that Mitch McConnell is receiving these campaign contributions," the Brennan Center for Justice's Lawrence Norden told Sludge last month. "He seems single-handedly to be standing in the way of anything passing in Congress around election security, and that includes things that the vendors might want, like money for the states to replace antiquated equipment."

McConnell's actions seemed even more out of balance with his party, as the Senate Intelligence Committee⁠—led by Republicans⁠—released a report later on Thursday claiming Russians have targeted voting systems in all 50 states in 2016. Though there was no evidence votes were changed, in Illinois "Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data."

In 2018, there were 14 states that used electronic voting systems in 2018 with no paper trail, that means that if votes were inaccurately tallied or machines malfunctioned, there would be no way to investigate or recover those votes. Voting machine companies are not currently subject to any federally-mandated security standards.

[democratisphere]

1. Moscow Mitch is totally corrupt and vile.

[mitch96]

6. Yup, Pay to play politics at it's best.......... nt

You or I do it and it's called a bribe.... Them??? politics..... No wonder they never want to leave...
m

[asiliveandbreathe]

2. Thanks for posting..even the companies who own the voting machines

THINK THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW....

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/22/us-voting-machine-private-companies-voter-registration

When Raskin learned that there are next to no federal laws that govern or regulate private sector companies involved in US election infrastructure, he hurriedly introduced a bill that would prevent states from contracting with firms owned or influenced by non-US citizens. He plans to reintroduce an updated version of the bill in this legislative session, he told the Guardian. While it has a decent chance of passing the Democratic-controlled House, it would require Republican support in the Senate to become law.

That is not likely. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has been antagonistic to election reform bills, as has the whole Republican party. The party narrative is that Democrats are trying to use the federal government to take over state and local elections; the political angle is that recognizing vulnerabilities or flaws in the election system could raise doubts about the legitimacy of the party’s – and Donald Trump’s – victory in 2016.

Hey mcturte..who is gaslighting who.....

[ancianita]

3. Today makes it the fourth election fix bill he's blocked.

[alwaysinasnit]

4. K&R

[UTUSN]

5. K&R

[smirkymonkey]

7. Is there any person or organization that can file a lawsuit against him for this?

This is a clear conflict of interest and an example of a politician interfering in our voting process. I don't understand how he can get away with this.

[ancianita]

8. The longer time passes between lobby gift and the "donation," the less likely. But yes. Because

federal elections are of overarching national interest.

Lawyers are so busy these days it's probably in the queue.

Also, a pattern of conflicts of interest behavior might bring an abuse of power or conflict of interest case.

I wish at least one of our leaders might look into this.