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Trumps latest indictment raises election security concerns for 2024
The Georgia indictment against former President Donald Trump for election meddling includes charges of election fraud. This development is raising concerns and questions about election security and integrity as the nation heads into the 2024 presidential race.
OAKLAND - The 2020 election meddling indictment in Georgia of former President Donald Trump and 18 supporters is raising concerns and questions about election security and integrity, as the nation heads into the 2024 presidential race.
KTVU found that eight of the nine Bay Area counties, with the exception of Solano County, use Dominion Voting Systems. That is the same company that was targeted in a data breach by Trump allies in Coffee County, Georgia, in an alleged attempt to change the 2020 election results in favor of Trump.
The Georgia indictment charges four people with conspiracy to commit election fraud, computer theft, trespass and invasion of privacy.
Trump attorney Sidney Powell, is accused of paying for a scheme to illegally access voter data and data from the Dominion Voting Systems equipment.
Coffee County's election director Misty Hampton is accused of allowing illegal access to the voting data and equipment.
Two other Trump supporters, Scott Graham Hall and Cathleen Latham, a former Coffee County GOP chair are also charged.
The California Deputy Secretary of State Susan Lapsley, an elections expert, says the Dominion software in the Georgia case and the software used in Bay Area elections are not the same.
'"In Georgia 5.2 was the software version," said Lapley, "Here in California we use a CA-specific software."
Lapsley also says that in California there are extra protections and protocols in place leading into the 2024 elections
Lapsley says state officials have had conversations with Dominion and she adds that California has some of the nation's toughest requirements for election security protocols.
"We have source code review, vulnerability testing," said Lapsley, "The system...they have an airgap ..so it can't be connected to internet nor can they have the ability to be connected to the internet."
Kristin Connelly, the Contra Costa County Clerk and Registrar of Voters says Bay Area election officials are preparing cybersecurity precautions.
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"We have our IT team meeting regularly attending calls by the FBI so we know what the current cyberthreats are," said Connelly.
Connelly also says physical access to voting equipment is tightly restricted.
"Just to give you a sense, I'm the top official in my department. I have no reason to be in the tabulation room without the staff that knows how to run it," said Connelly,
She says election officials are also meeting with law enforcement to protect election workers.
Legal expert Daniel Farber, a law professor at UC Berkeley, says, although the charges are in Georgia, they have broad implications nationwide.
"It covers both kind of high level things like the fake electors scheme, but it also gets down on a very concrete level to talk about efforts to tamper with voting machines," said Farber, "This clearly was a national effort by a lot of different people operating in a lot of different places to try to undo what all the courts agree was a valid election. That's really unprecedented."