If Voting Machines Are 'Critical Infrastructure,' Why Not the Voter Rolls as Well?

By Dan Cadman on January 12, 2017

On January 6, the outgoing secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Jeh Johnson, designated elections infrastructure as "critical". This follows the ongoing political war over whether or nor Russia "hacked" U.S. elections.

Johnson's designation permits the federal government to take a more active hand in the electoral process via Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21), "Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience".

Some are concerned that this may represent an unwelcome intrusion into a sphere that is generally reserved to the states, and may presage "a way for the administration to get Justice Department lawyers, the FBI, and DHS staff into polling places they would otherwise have no legal right to access, which would enable them to interfere with election administration procedures around the country." If so, the timing is awkward with just days remaining in the Obama administration.

Interestingly, designated critical infrastructure locations are among the only areas where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a DHS agency, has made any serious effort at worksite enforcement during this administration. They have done so on the not-unreasonable theory that illegal aliens who gain access to such locations (sterile areas of airports, military bases, nuclear and chemical plants, etc.), whether through employment or as contract construction workers or the like, render them vulnerable.

It seems to me that the voter rolls are just as much a part of the critical infrastructure of elections as the voting machines and software. One might assume that as a part of this designation pursuant to PPD 21, DHS and its subordinate agencies will take an interest in ensuring that elections are not tampered with, or affected, by any kind of "foreign interference" — including aliens who vote illegally. This is something about which I have written, and will continue to write.

The right and privilege of voting is reserved to United States citizens. If elections are as important as the recent Russia kerfuffle would have us believe (and they are), then it makes no sense to protect the system against intrusion from the outside, while permitting its corruption from within.


Topics: Voter Fraud