"Glitch Allows Non-U.S. Citizens In Pa. To Vote"

Via Drudge:  Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt says a glitch in the state’s “motor-voter” process has allowed non-U.S. citizens to register to vote, even though he thinks they did so accidentally.

The glitch has had no impact on elections, as the number of people mistakenly registered was small, but Schmidt thinks that statewide there could be many more and he wants the state to review registrations. He also wants it to cross check all active voter registration records against all current PennDOT records containing INS Indicators.

Secretary of State Pedro Cortes issued a statement saying PennDOT is changing its system to prevent the problem in the future and has already made improvements. He did not address reviewing and cross checking registrations statewide. A spokeswoman for Cortes said they are conducting their own review.

(Link to story)

From IRS and the tea parties to Homeland and the vote

UPI:  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday his department is considering classifying electronic polling stations across the country as "critical infrastructure," entitling them to the same level of cyber-protection as the nation's power grid and financial sector.

Johnson said the federal government has been looking at how to protect electronic polling stations from cyberattacks since before it was revealed the Democratic National Committee had been hacked, likely by Russians, representing a serious foreign cyber intrusion affecting the 2016 presidential election.

While federal officials have yet to officially point the finger for the DNC hack at the Russians, The New York Times reported Thursday that intelligence officials have a "high level of confidence" the individuals behind the DNC hack have ties to the Russian government.

"We should carefully consider whether our election system, our election process is critical infrastructure, like the financial sector, like the power grid," Johnson told reporters in Washington. "There's a vital national interest in our electoral process."

The nation's election infrastructure -- and the security of it -- has not undergone significant changes since passage of the Help America Vote Act in 2002, which Johnson said "raised the bar" for security, but is now outdated.

Are we more afraid of PC than afraid of the terrorist?

"A local (Revere, Mass) high school cheerleading captain was disciplined after she sent out a tweet about illegal immigrants."

She says it was a political statement, not a racial one. FOX25 spoke with the teen who says she was taking a page from Donald Trump. Caley Godino is a senior at Revere High School and she says part of their homework is to watch these presidential debates and her tweet was simply about a hot button issue in the headlines.

"When only 10 percent of Revere votes for mayor cause the other 90 percent isn't legal," Godino said in the tweet.

She says it was a response to a tweet from her teacher about the low voter turnout for November's mayoral race. Caley says she meant her tweet as a political comment, not a racial one.

But after other students complained, the school stepped in. Revere Superintendent Dianne Kelly says the district believes in freedom of speech, but cannot support what she calls insensitive language. (read more and watch video at the link)

"California motor-voter law will flood rolls with noncitizens, critics predict"

"The New Motor Voter Act automatically registers to vote all eligible voters when they obtain or renew their driver’s licenses at the Department of Motor Vehicles instead of requiring them to fill out a form. Those eligible may opt out of voter registration."

The goal is to ease barriers to voting, but election-integrity advocates warn that the measure could inadvertently add millions of illegal voters to the rolls given that California allows undocumented aliens to obtain driver’s licenses.

Eleven states and the District of Columbia now allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, which are different in appearance from those issued to citizens. In California, noncitizen licenses carry the words “Federal Limits Apply” and “not valid for official federal purposes,” according to DriveCA.org.

In California, however, state officials “specifically chose not to make noncitizen license holders searchable in their DMV database,” said True the Vote spokesman Logan Churchwell, who called the newly signed bill “unprecedented.”