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Securityweek has a look at the bits of HR1 with digital election security implications running:
The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has unveiled its first Bill: HR1, dubbed the 'For the People Act'. It has little chance of getting through the Republican-controlled Congress, and even less chance of being signed into law by President Trump.
Nevertheless, HR1 lays down a marker for current Democrat intentions; and it is likely that some of the potentially bi-partisan elements could be spun out into separate bills with a greater chance of progress.
One of these is likely to include the section on election security. This has been a major issue since the meddling by Russian-state hackers in the 2016 presidential election, and the subsequent realization on how easy it would be for interested parties (both foreign hackers and local activists) to influence election outcomes.
I'm all for secure and accountable elections but the feds are going to need to be careful and deliberate in what they mandate vs. what they place conditions for funding on. They do have significant authority as far as election laws go but their power is more deep than broad; most specifics are legally up to the states. Just because something is a good idea doesn't mean they currently have the legal authority necessary to do it.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Friday January 11 2019, @11:38PM
This. The hurdles put in place to gain an ID are the biggest objection to the proposed ID laws.
This past year I was required to renew my driver's license. Simple thing, no big deal right? OK, my bad for procrastinating, but three weeks before I was due to renew I opened the envelope to discover that rather than the usual process of renewing online in a few minutes I was required to renew in person.
That annoyance was made worse by the fact I was supposed to bring actual mailed copies of bills or such (by my reading of the wording on the site), so I rushed to change my accounts, which have been handled paperless online for years, to have actual mailed bills (the clerk later said that's what it says but they accept printed copies of e-bills thanks for not having that info on the site). Fortunately I received the last of them a couple days prior to my appointment.
Worse than that though, I discovered that my birth certificate, which had been perfectly valid and accepted by all for nearly 60 years, was no longer considered valid since it was issued by a hospital. I had to apply to the state where I was born for a state certified birth certificate. That, which I also got just two days before the appointment, for two copies (extra was $10 so I said why not) plus expedited shipping ($12) cost $49 in total. Not to mention the website was extremely balky and I had to restart the process several times. When the "certified" copies arrived, there was not a thing on them that was not on my original hospital issued certificate, it looked like the info was simply copied by hand.
To compound things, my vehicle had crapped out the weekend before the appointment, which I discovered was no longer in the centrally located office due to flooding from the past fall's hurricane, nor was in in the temporary administration offices less than a half mile from home, but in some godforsaken near deserted shopping mall located much further away. Had I had to take the local buses, with their transfers and such, I would have had to spend a couple hours getting there and a couple hours getting back. A taxi would have cost me nearly $50 each way. Fortunately my boss lent me her car for the process. I work nights, so at least I didn't have to take a day off work.
If you consider all that, just imagine a minimum wage worker having to go through all that. They could be stymied financially at any of several points, not the least of which would be having to take an unpaid day off work.