Read on Twitter
“In September 2016, ... James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee that it would be ‘very, very difficult’ for someone to hack into the US voting machine system because it’s so ‘clunky & dispersed’ & ‘those things aren’t connected to the internet.’” https://whowhatwhy.org/2019/03/19/permission-to-cheat-audits-cant-detect-fake-votes-on-new-hybrid-voting-machines/ 1/
2/ “In reality, however, ES&S and Dominion account for more than 80 percent of US election equipment, creating a centralized avenue of attack for corrupt insiders or hackers.”
3/ “Moreover, contrary to Comey’s suggestion, all hybrids, BMDs, voting machines, and scanners must receive programming before each election from centralized county or state computers called election management systems that can and do connect to the internet.”
4/ “These election management system computers also include the central tabulators, which aggregate all electronic vote tallies from the precincts.”
5/ “Those tallies are then sent from the central tabulators to online reporting systems with flash drives or USB sticks that, in some jurisdictions, go back and forth between the online system and the central tabulator throughout the night as results are uploaded.”
6/ “This creates yet another central target for hackers to wreak havoc on an election.”
7/ Moreover, precinct-based ballot scanners in FL, MI, WI, IL, and RI do send electronic tallies via cellular modem, i.e., over the internet! https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/11/05/voting-machines-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/
8/ I've noticed that some election professionals refer to scanners as "voting machines," while others do not (because scanners are technically used only to count, not to "vote"). There is no agreed upon meaning for these terms, which makes it easy to mislead the public & others.
9/ More about those wireless modems. Comey may not be concerned, but cybersecurity election experts find the modems to be alarming. https://www.axios.com/cybersecurity-experts-press-dhs-eac-election-machine-flaws-security-midterms-2018-4ae60a59-5e31-4c96-8163-1645b54956ce.html
10/ Moreover, as noted above, online reporting systems are, by definition, online (think internet). Although reported totals are not technically the actual votes, they might as well be in jurisdictions that don't reconcile the precinct totals with what is later reported online.
11/ I don't know which counties do and don't conduct this reconciliation. The one county I interviewed (Johnson County, Kansas, where the Commissioner was appointed by Kris Kobach) acknowledged that it does not conduct that reconciliation. I was stunned. https://tyt.com/stories/4vZLCHuQrYE4uKagy0oyMA/5YIEQxHW5qmWayG0kYCsy2
12/ Broward County, Florida, whose election website experienced problems in both 2016 and 2018 (and which is rumored to the county that Russia infiltrated) made reconciliation impossible in 2018 (and perhaps 2016) by NOT breaking down reported totals into categories, e.g., ...
13/ ... election day vs. early voting vs. vote by mail.
14/ From November 2018: https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1063120911157518336
15/ Broward Election website problems involving VR Systems (the company reportedly hacked by Russia) in 2016. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-broward-early-results-fallout-20160831-story.html
16/ Leon County, Florida also had election website problems in 2016. https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/08/31/server-shutdown-confused-online-election-results/89651758/
17/ Broward County also experienced problems with the CELLULAR MODEMS in its ballot scanners. https://www.propublica.org/article/aging-machines-crowds-humidity-problems-at-the-polls-were-mundane-but-widespread
18/ https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-broward-election-hacking-congresswoman-rumor-20190506-story.html
Congresswoman cites ‘rumors’ that Broward was the Florida county hacked by Russians in 2016 election
Congresswoman cites ‘rumors’ that Broward was the Florida county hacked by Russians in 2016 election
19/ And, of course, Florida was one of the states that had significant problems with its electronic pollbooks in 2018. via @SEGreenhalgh of @DefendOurVotes https://twitter.com/SEGreenhalgh/status/1119614172508184583
21/ Russia, by the way, was reported to have hacked Ukraine's election reporting system in 2014. https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1124933637567238146
