While the GOP has been shedding crocodile tears about election fraud — a demonstrably vain concern — others have for years* been warning about the dangers of electronic, web-enabled, non-auditable (or unaudited) voting machines.

Now comes a report that Russian hackers have at minimum probed the vulnerabilities of these machines.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that these machines have already been hacked by political operatives within the U.S. The CEO of Diebold, one of the largest developers of voting machines, famously said that electing George W. Bush was one of his top priorities.

And it must be said: The people who have for years been attacking the integrity of elections — by egregious gerrymandering and suppressing  the votes of minorities should not be considered above more direct tampering with elections.

So the vulnerabilty of our election infrastructure has finally made it to the front pages of our newspapers, and that’s a good thing.

Now that the mainstream media is finally paying attention, let’s hope the voting public applies pressure to their elected officials to restore integrity to the heart of democracy, the popular vote.

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