facebook-pixel

Letter: National popular vote would protect us from election hacking

(Francisco Kjolseth  |  The Salt Lake Tribune)  People arrive to vote early at the Salt Lake County complex for primary election day on Tuesday, June 26, 2018.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) People arrive to vote early at the Salt Lake County complex for primary election day on Tuesday, June 26, 2018.

The Mueller report documents that, in 2016, at least one county computer system in Florida was successfully hacked by Russian operatives. The vote margin for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton was just over 100,000 votes in that state. That was approximately .07% of the total votes cast nationwide (136 million) in our last presidential election.

It’s not known at this time which Florida county suffered the intrusion, but if the results were sufficient to flip the state’s total electoral votes from one candidate to the other, does it matter at this point?

The critically urgent question that must be addressed before 2020 is: Who do we want to have the greatest influence on our next presidential election: the American people, or a foreign government?

Go to www.nationalpopularvote.com and learn how a national popular vote for president is 70% of the way to making the national popular vote the vote that elects the holder our one national office without a constitutional amendment.

Bunnie Keen, Salt Lake City

Submit a letter to the editor

Support free news for Utah

sltrib.com is now free to access — no subscription required. We made this decision because we believe access to trustworthy, independent news shouldn’t depend on what you can afford — especially as misinformation and AI-generated content continue to rise.

Free to read doesn’t mean free to produce. Our reporters show up every day to ask hard questions and hold powerful institutions to account. That work takes resources. As a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on support from people who believe it matters. Make a donation today to fund local news that serves Utah communities.

You can help us bring more local news to more communities today.