Electronic voting, one of the solutions that could bring the French back to the polls? Guest of France Info on Monday, Christophe Castaner put forward this track as one of the responses to the low turnout in departmental and regional elections on Sunday.
The former Minister of the Interior, however, warned about “the security issue” posed by this type of vote, citing a “risk of attack” and “foreign interference”. “Some countries – as we have seen in the United States – may have suffered from it,” he detailed. Contacted by 20 Minutes, Christophe Castaner’s entourage did not specify to which poll precisely the leader of the LREM deputies was referring.
FAKE OFF
While the US authorities did report foreign influence campaigns during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, they are much more cautious about any technical manipulation of the counting or recording of the vote.
In a report dated March and declassified, the National Intelligence Council, which aims to synchronize intelligence in the United States, underlines “not to have indications” that “a foreign actor has tried to alter an aspect technique of the voting process for the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, voting, counting or announcement of results ”.
The authors of this report note “that unlike 2016”, the Committee “has not seen a persistent cyber effort on the part of Russia to gain access to electoral infrastructure”.
In January 2017, however, the Committee was qualified on the consequences of Russian cyber activity during the 2016 election. It noted that, “as early as 2014, Russian intelligence services have been researching American electoral processes and related technologies and equipment. But the Committee then quoted the Department of Homeland Security as saying that these Russian activities did not target systems “involved in the counting of votes.”
A Senate report also noted that it had no knowledge of technical manipulations of voting systems in 2016, even though it pointed out that its knowledge was limited.
The report by prosecutor Mueller, who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, is succinct on the issue.
“The election of November 3 was the safest in the history of the United States”
During the last American presidential election, last November, several supporters of Donald Trump repeatedly relayed accusations of fraud, in particular pointing the finger at electronic voting machines.
These claims have been challenged by several election organizations in the United States. “The election of November 3 was the safest in the history of the United States, they said in a statement on November 12 […]. There is no evidence that a voting system erased or lost votes, altered votes, or was compromised in any way. “
These organizations recall that “States with close results” have paper records of each vote, allowing a recount if necessary.
In addition, around forty legal actions carried out by the Trump camp have also failed, recallsBusiness Insider.
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