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Gazelka is holding election cybersecurity hostage

There is a partisan struggle going on in the Minnesota legislature over the security of our voting system. The nature of the struggle seems obscure but the end result may be that our voting systems integrity will be put at risk.

In 2016 Minnesota’s computerized voter registration system, along with that of twenty other states, experienced a cyber attack from a foreign government, according to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

As a result of those attacks DHS declared voting systems across the United States to be infrastructure critical to our national security. As part of that declaration, the federal government ear marked grants for states to improve cybersecurity. Minnesota’s grant was for $6.6 million. Most states could simply accept their grant. Minnesota’s system of governance requires the legislature to vote to accept the grant, however. Although the Secretary of State can recommend how to use the money the legislature gets to vote not only if the money will be accepted but how it will be used.

Last legislative session the Republicans, using trumpian negotiating tactics, tied the voting security grant up with the monster Omnibus Bill that they knew Governor Dayton would veto.

As a result of the heavy handed, and failed, negotiating strategy of the Republican Party, Minnesota was the only state in the nation that was unable to access the cybersecurity grant money for the 2018 elections.

Now, as we enter the depths of the 2019 legislative session Paul Gazelka’s Minnesota Senate is taking the same trumpian all or nothing negotiating tactic. 

On February 21st, the Minnesota House of Representatives acted in a truly bipartisan manner when, on a 105 to 23 vote, they accepted the $6.6 million grant to be used for developing cybersecurity measures for Minnesota’s election system. All of the “no” votes were Republicans.

“Republicans who spoke against the bill said it needed more specificity as to how the money would be spent, rather than letting Simon decide,” MinnPost wrote in a February 22nd article. (Read article here: https://tinyurl.com/y2n6lvom

In America the idea that voting, and the right to do so, is a non-partisan issue is baloney. Although the Democrats have been caught at partisan gerrymandering on occasion, gerrymandering and voter suppression are unabashedly Republican political tricks. Take the attempt to suppress the Native American vote in North Dakota, the elimination of African American votes from voter rolls in Georgia, or the outright attempt to steal a Congressional seat in North Carolina, for examples. All are the dirty un-democratic work of Republicans. 

So, the posturing by Senator Gazelka’s Senate as they attempt to keep Minnesota from getting its election cybersecurity grant is not surprising. Gazelka says that more discussion needs to be had before the Senate votes to allow Minnesota to receive its grant and implement its cybersecurity measures. He says, according to MinnPost, that more discussion needs to be had about how the money should be used before the Senate votes.

Gazelka, MinnPost claims, is angling to use some of the cybersecurity money to establish  provisional balloting in Minnesota. Gazelka hasn’t said so, but MinnPost points to a lobbying effort by the right wing Minnesota Voters Alliance to include  funding for provisional balloting in any bill that supports approving the cybersecurity grant. 

Minnesota Voters Alliance, and its members, are lobbying Republican Senators to include funding for provisional balloting in a cybersecurity grant bill. If the provisional balloting money is not in the bill, the extremist organization demands, then Gazelka’s Senate should approve no money for cybersecurity.

Does that strategy remind you of Donald Trump?

Perhaps Minnesota should have provisional balloting. Provisional balloting allows voters whose right to vote or registration status is questioned to still vote. Once they’ve cast their ballot it is set aside until the voters eligibility is determined. A discussion about provisional balloting can be held separate from cybersecurity.


But the cybersecurity money was ear marked for cybersecurity. The need is immediate.  Paul Gazelka’s Senate must release the grant money now.

Tim
Central Minnesota Political

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