02/19/2019
Here's something you probably didn't know...
In 2016, a Russian controlled secret market (like "Silkroad" but much bigger) on the Darknet called "AlphaBay" was freely distributing guides on how-to hack voting machines locally and/or hacking the county controlled voter-files.
While the goal of voting matching hacking is apparent, the voter-file hack is done with the intention of altering only a few voters per precinct. The idea behind this was, in a close statewide election, making just a few likely Democratic voters per precinct ineligible to vote could change the outcome of the entire election.
If this seems impossible, you should keep two things in mind:
1. In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama came reasonably close to winning the then bellwether state of Missouri with the final percentage being 49.36% - 49.23%.
If Obama had just one more vote per precinct, he would have won the state.
2. Most voter-files are maintained at the county level, and their security is at the mercy of the county governments willingness, awareness, capability to keep the data secure. While some states are improving, most states have no centralized security system to protect voter records.
This means that counties like Hickory County, Missouri - which does not have geolocation or GPS capabilities....... as in, they don't exist as if the county were a black hole. Is in charge of protecting voter data from one of the most advanced cybersecurity threats of our time.
If a hacker were to gain access, they need only change voter's address to make them ineligible in states like Missouri. One small change to one record in one precinct carried out over the entire state is all it would take to change the fate of an election.
Are you scared yet?
How about this?
I moved to a new apartment this year and registered to vote months before the election. I got electronic confirmation, and they even mailed me a physical voter I.D. card to my address with my address printed on it as the address at which I was registered.
In August, I voted in the Primary, and everything went smoothly with no abnormalities
In November, on election day, I went to the same polling place as before, I.D. card in hand, ready to save the world and cast my Democratic vote. I practically ran up to the poll worker, gave her my information, handed over my official State of Missouri Voter I.D. card with my official address on it, and ........denied.
According to their electronic voter registration records... I was ineligible to vote at that location because I was not registered at my apartment... I wasn't even registered in the same City as my apartment and, despite voting in August, according to the system, I never had been.
I was told that to be able to vote I would have to go drive 30 miles away to vote in Centralia, MO where I was "still" officially registered.
The biggest problem with this was that I had never even been to Centralia, known anyone from Centralia, or even known Centralia existed.
So... wtf?
If that seems scary... check this out:
My father who has lived at the same address for almost 30 years and voted in every election was ineligible to vote as well because his registration had also been changed to an address he'd never known in a place he'd never heard of.
Despite being 300 miles away from one another, we both took that news in the same "Oh No You Didn't" kind of way.
Apparently, neither of us was going to put up with that bat $**t crazy Russian hacking nonsense and raised hell till the mistake was corrected and we were allowed to vote on official, non-provisional ballots (apple? tree?).
We got to vote, but we are unashamed and over-bearing, unabashedly persistent, loud and cranky men that don't take no for an answer. How many people would have just walked away, or at best, only voted with a provisional ballot?
While I waited to vote at least nine people left because they were tired of standing in line... This sort of mistake could be a significant deterrent and, if purposefully targeted, a major political problem (and a crime).
Is this what went on in 2016? Is it real and still happening? I don't know, but I for one will be a paper-ballot voter will the end of time.
P.S. Yes, yes, and yes. They are creating bogus social media profiles to link into friend networks, find and target voting liberals, and knock them off in the voter file selectively.
