I just bumped into this article by Dustin Volz on Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of a federal commission who has helped U.S. states protect election systems from possible cyber attacks by Russia or others is being replaced at the behest of Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and the White House.
This news is extremely disturbing, considering the fact that no action is being taken by the WH to safeguard our 2018 elections after the Mueller Indictment of 13 Russians and 3 Russian companies for their alleged involvement in a criminal conspiracy to tamper with the 2016 election.
Unfortunately, this decision by Paul Ryan to remove Masterson, the cyber savvy and experienced Chairman of the federal Election Assistance Committee, and replacing him with a Ryan/tRump choice is not even making a headline with the current attention to the Parkland shooting and the NRA stories.
This commission was created in 2002 in the aftermath of the George W. Bush election. Its responsibilities include setting voluntary federal guidelines for voter machine purchases and cyber security. There have been complaints by some Repugs that this commission is a federal overreach into states rights for running elections. Last year the Repug led House Administration Committee passed a measure to terminate the agency because “it has outlived its usefulness”, which is similar to the logic used for the gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013.
AshLee Strong, Ryan’s spokeswoman, claims it’s simply standard procedure to choose their own folks for this position which expired in December. At least they haven’t eliminated the commission in its entirety...yet.
Masterson has been a popular figure among state election officials, many of whom have praised his expertise and leadership on cyber security issues and expressed chagrin at his pending departure. The agency was created by Congress in 2002 to assist states in complying with federal election standards.
“It is pretty remarkable that in this environment, given the importance of this issue, that the speaker would choose this moment to not reappoint the person doing the most work in this area,” said Judd Choate, Colorado’s election director and the immediate past president of the National Association of State Election Directors.
Valuable additional insights from Richard O below.
I noticed a diary by Joan McCarter about the same subject…no longer on rec list.
www.dailykos.com/...
We ended up with pretty much the same text quoted, so i guess this neophyte diarist is making progress.