Make sure your vote counts

Recently, Admiral Mike Rogers, the NSA director, acknowledged that no one in the administration has taken sufficient steps to prevent Russian cyber meddling in the 2018 midterms. And Donald Trump has never convened a cabinet-level meeting about dealing with Russian intervention in our elections. Now we learn that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson neglected to use millions of dollars that Congress offered from Defense Department funds for that purpose.

Seven states, including Illinois, had their websites or voter registration databases hacked by Russia-backed operatives before the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In talking about this, officials claimed that no votes were changed. How can they say that? With electronic voting and no paper trail, there is no way to verify that claim.

It has been shown that it is incredibly easy to hack electronic voting machines. What can we, as American citizens, do to protect our elections and our democracy?

Make sure your vote leaves a paper trail. Vote on Election Day and chose a paper ballot. Or vote by mail.

If you must use an electronic voting machine, be sure to check the printout before ejecting the card, to make sure that the machine is recording your votes in the way you intended. To make sure your vote counts, make sure they count your vote.

Ed Dassow

Lombard