Get out the camera, Capito makes an appearance at Oglebay Park and recalls the bunny slope

WV Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who local readers have not read much about since August*,
made a surprise visit to the first night of Oglebay Park's Festival of the Lights. Today, both papers featured the opening ceremonies but managed to find lots of room for Capito as she finished a close second in word count to Wheeling Park Commission President and CEO David Lindelow. Her reminiscences, for example, took up one-fourth of the article even when they had nothing to do with the festival:

She recalled fond childhood memories of skiing the bunny slope at the ski lodge, going to the swimming pool with its wooden benches, staying in cabins for family reunions and enjoying the beauty and traditions of the park.

Capito is also in both of the front page pictures that accompany the article.

More kudos to WV Secretary of State Mac Warner

One of today's Wheeling News-Register editorials heaps praise on WV Secretary of State Mac Warner for "Using Technology To Unleash Voters." The editorial describe what happened earlier this week:

For the general election held Tuesday, nearly 140 West Virginians living abroad in 29 countries were able to vote using remote electronic devices such as smartphones.

Warner had announced this effort last summer to almost universal pans by the cybersecurity community. (See my earlier post on the subject.) Warner implemented his proposal and, according to the editorial:

By and large, the pilot program worked well this time around, according to Warner’s office.

Yes, the editorial takes Warner’s word for it. Any research would have yielded a much different picture. Here's Ars Technica's article about it by Timothy B. Lee:

Blockchain-based elections would be a disaster for democracy

Lee begins:

If you talk to experts on election security (I studied with several of them in graduate school) they'll tell you that we're nowhere close to being ready for online voting. "Mobile voting is a horrific idea," said election security expert Joe Hall when I asked him about a West Virginia experiment with blockchain-based mobile voting back in August.

And here's an article by Jasmin Boyce at NBC News about the WV experiment which cites cybersecurity experts:

After a stressful election, experts warn blockchain is not the answer

Both articles cite a number of experts that what West Virginia is doing is not a good idea. My hunch is that no research was done by our editorial writer because whether blockchain voting is actually a good idea is irrelevant to the purpose of this editorial which is to make Mac Warner look good. (My guess would be that our local writer simply rewrote a PR release from Warner's office.)

(Note -- We are probably not far away from a decision in the second wrongful termination suit against Warner. The first did not end well for the Secretary of State and I doubt that this one will not be any friendlier to him. (Last time, Warner's actions cost WV taxpayers a million dollars.) This will probably mean more mental gymnastics on the part of Ogden papers to explain how Warner should not be blamed for unnecessarily costing the state even more money. (See here for the original story.))

*In August, Capito was featured (with photo) in an already-very-dated story about the economy. (See here.)

Saturday morning update

Let's make it two straight days of Capito features. Page 23 of this morning's Intelligencer tells us that the senator hosted a Girls Rise Up event at Sistersville Elementary School on Thursday. A picture of the senator with the girls is included. Because of its importance, the article is also highlighted at the top of the front page.