White House officials have for months delayed the release of a U.S. government report that outlines what it describes as significant vulnerabilities in the nation’s voting machines ahead of the November midterms, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The report, produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, concludes that voting machines could be further safeguarded by, for example, updating their software, the sources said. It does not say the vulnerabilities have led to votes flipping, but examines security gaps in how the machines are used during U.S. elections.
Some White House officials have argued the report could undermine voter confidence, particularly among Republicans. Others have said they do not believe the report goes far enough in supporting President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, the three sources said. Some Democrats said privately they worried Gabbard’s probe into voting machines would be used by the administration to push states to use paper ballots.
Why don’t they just release it and call it wrong or gay or woke whatever. It’s worked for everything else, why bother trying to hide facts now when they can just tell their base to ignore it?
Because if they actually release it they can’t either…
(a) fearmonger about a nothingburger in order to undermine confidence in the election, or
(b) wait to spring an actual vulnerability on the public until it’s too late to do anything about it in order to undermine confidence in the election (or indeed, to exploit it to undermine the election itself),
…depending on what the contents of the report actually are.
In every case, spreading FUD about a mysterious secret problem serves the ratfuckers’ interests more than being forthright does.