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Potential Voting Machine Issues (tampering) in Some States

Angry Bear | September 24, 2022 6:00 am

Law

Politics

“Computer experts urge Georgia to replace voting machines,” (msn.com), Kate Brumback

Should Georgia replace present voting machines with paper ballots?

CNN — A Republican County official in Georgia escorted two operatives working with an attorney for former President Donald Trump into the county’s election offices on the same day a voting system there was breached, newly obtained video shows.
The breach is now under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and is of interest to the Fulton County District Attorney, who is conducting a wider criminal probe of interference in the 2020 election.

Since this occurrence, computer and election security experts are urging Georgia election officials to replace the state’s touchscreen voting machines. And instead, substitute paper ballots ahead of the November midterm elections. Citing “serious threats” posed by an apparent breach of voting equipment in one county.

Thirteen experts sent a letter to the members of the State Election Board and to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a non-voting member of the board. The letter urges them to immediately stop using the state’s Dominion Voting Systems touchscreen voting machines. The letter also suggests a mandate using a particular type of post-election audit on the outcome of all races on the ballot.

This did not happen solely in Georgia. Similar occurred in Michigan as detailed by the Secretary of the State of Michigan to the Michigan State Police. “Investigation into Third Party Access to Vote Tabulators,” (michigan.gov), Secretary Jocelyn Benson and also Detroit “Exclusive: Trump-backed Michigan attorney general candidate (DePerno) involved in voting-system breach, documents show” | Reuters

Eight known attempts to gain unauthorized access to voting systems in five U.S. states since the 2020 election. All involved local Republican officeholders or party activists who have advanced Trump’s stolen-election falsehoods or conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines, according to a Reuters examination of the incidents.

These findings warrant additional precautions to be taken before certification of a vote. I am sure trump is laughing to himself about all the crap he has been causing.

Known occurrences of polling machine tampering here, here, and here.

Trump allies breach U.S. voting systems in search of ‘evidence’ (reuters.com)

6 Comments

Fred C. Dobbs says:

September 24, 2022 at 8:40 am

This Threat to Democracy Is Hiding in Plain Sight

NY Times – editorial – Sep 23

In the weeks after the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and his allies were unable to get far in their attempts to prove widespread voter fraud. There were two reasons for that.

First, there wasn’t any, as numerous investigations by journalists, expert reports and court rulings showed. But second, Republican election officials in multiple states repeatedly said that their counts and recounts were accurate, and they defended the integrity of the election. For all the pressure that the Trump camp brought to bear, well-trained, civic-minded election workers carried out their duty to maintain the machinery of American voting.

Many top Republican Party officials and lawmakers have spent the last two years striking back, and drawn the most attention for their efforts to pass “voter integrity” laws that aim to make voting more onerous under the guise of preventing fraud. From January 2021 to May of this year, just under three dozen restrictive laws had been passed in nearly 20 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  September 24, 2022 at 8:43 am
  
  These are pernicious laws, and they undermine Americans’ hard-won rights to vote. But just as important is the matter of who counts the votes, and who decides which votes count and which do not.
  
  This is where Mr. Trump’s allies have focused much of their scheming since his re-election defeat. Their mission is to take over America’s election infrastructure, or at least key parts of it, from the ground up by filling key positions of influence with Trump sympathizers. Rather than threatening election officials, they will be the election officials — the poll workers and county commissioners and secretaries of state responsible for overseeing the casting, counting and certifying of votes.
  
  These efforts require attention and mobilization from Americans across the political spectrum. America’s system of voting is complex and decentralized, with most of the oversight done at the state and local level by thousands of elected and appointed officials, along with poll workers. While it is outdated and inconvenient in many places, this system has worked relatively well for roughly 200 years.
  
  But Mr. Trump’s attempts to subvert the election also revealed the system’s vulnerabilities, and his allies are now intently focused on exploiting those pressure points to bend the infrastructure of voting to their advantage. Their drive to take over election machinery county by county, state by state, is a reminder that democracy is fragile. The threats to it are not only violent ruptures like the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol but also quieter efforts to corrupt it.
  
  A key element of this strategy is dismantling the bulwarks that stopped the assault on democracy in 2020. In Georgia, the top state election official, Brad Raffensperger, its secretary of state, refused Mr. Trump’s request to help steal the election by agreeing to “find” 11,780 additional votes. In Michigan, the Board of State Canvassers certified Joe Biden’s victory despite Mr. Trump’s aggressive meddling. A host of other state and local officials, many of them Republicans, pushed back on similarly antidemocratic machinations. …
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    September 24, 2022 at 8:47 am
    
    … The real threat to America’s electoral system is not posed by ineligible voters trying to cast ballots. It is coming from inside the system.
    
    All those who value democracy have a role to play in strengthening and supporting the electoral system that powers it, whatever their party. This involves, first, taking the threat posed by election deniers seriously and talking to friends and neighbors about it. It means paying attention to local elections — not just national ones — and supporting candidates who reject conspiracy theories and unfounded claims of fraud. It means getting involved in elections as canvassers or poll watchers or precinct officers. (Mr. Bannon has the right idea about civic participation; he just employs toxic lies as motivation.)
    
    And it means voting, in every race on the ballot and in every election. To this end, employers have a role to play as well, by giving workers time off to vote and encouraging them to do so.
    
    The task of safeguarding democracy does not end with one election. Mr. Trump and others looking to pervert the electoral process are full of intensity and are playing a long game. Only an equally strong and committed countervailing force will meet that challenge.
Ten Bears says:

September 24, 2022 at 10:09 am

Not only to hack the voting stations, perhaps find a way to change votes; or to cast doubt on the integrity of the system through implication; but to gum up the works, to throw a wrench, or a wooden shoe, in it. Replace the machines. Hand count paper ballots.

Sabotage the system …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

September 26, 2022 at 8:07 am

Little towns across Massachusetts, (almost?) all with hand-cranked wooden boxes for holding completed paper ballots, are being hit with requests from Trump-allied groups it would seem, for detailed records about recent (back to 2020) voting. Town clerks, many of whom are part-time, are directed to comply.
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  September 26, 2022 at 8:12 am
  
  The GOP is running a full slate of Trump-backed candidates for the November election, which stands almost no chance of success state-wide, but there does appear to be some support for those candidates in rural areas of the state. That’s about 2/3 of the state geographically, about 1/4 by population.