AT&T is currently taking the blame over election reporting problems in Michigan. This is because some counties were unable to immediately report the results of their election on Tuesday night due to AT&T’s 3G network shutdown.
The Wayne County clerk’s office confirmed in a website alert that 65 out of 83 counties in Michigan “are no longer modeming unofficial election results.”
As of this writing, there’s no word on the number of county officials who did not upgrade the modems they used. It’s also possible that this is because of the guidelines of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which advised against the use of modems. This was to prevent the risk of ransomware or any form of hacks.
“This has significantly delayed the reporting process. We do not have a definitive time of when we will reach 100 percent reporting, but will continue to work throughout the evening and morning until this is achieved.”
AT&T has not responded to any requests for a comment regarding this issue. To be fair, AT&T shutdown this network back in February so it’s not exactly something that happened overnight. Besides, AT&T has announced its plans to shut down its 3G network in 2019. This gave everyone enough time to make necessary adjustments.
Source: The Verge
