Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is very concerned about the security threat that Chinese-owned and manufactured buses and rail cars pose to the U.S. transportation infrastructure. "The potential for an adversarial state actor to monitor the movements of American citizens, hack personal or government-issued devices, and collect intelligence on our military is a major security concern," Cornyn said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing this week.
Well, yes, that is a problem—but probably not the one that the Senate should be spending its time on right now. What our senators should be worried about is that nearly half of all Americans will be voting on devices that use Chinese components. But Moscow Mitch McConnell doesn't want the Senate to be talking about that.
This has to end. Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats end McConnell's career as majority leader!
The dominant manufacturer of election equipment is Election Systems & Software LLC, or ES&S. "Some components (such as surface mount capacitors, resistors, inductors and fixed logic devices) may be sourced from China-based manufacturers," ES&S told NBC in a report it conducted late last year. ES&S has stonewalled efforts by members of Congress, including Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, to find out more about the company's ownership, finances, and research investment, as well as its manufacturing process. "The voting machine lobby, led by the biggest company, ES&S, believes they are above the law," Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NBC. "They have not had anybody hold them accountable even on the most basic matters."
Wyden, for one, is worried by the company's foreign parts supply, "What you have found is particularly important because of the China connection," he told NBC. That's what the Senate should be looking into right now, while there's still time to safeguard November's voting.