All 50 States Were Targeted by Russia

[applegrove]

All 50 States Were Targeted by Russia

July 25, 2019 at 6:04 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 49 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2019/07/25/all-50-states-were-targeted-by-russia/

"SNIP.....

“The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded Thursday that election systems in all 50 states were targeted by Russia in 2016, largely undetected by the states and federal officials at the time, but at the demand of American intelligence agencies the committee was forced to redact its findings so heavily that key lessons for the 2020 election are blacked out,” the New York Times reports.

“While details of many of the hackings directed by Russian intelligence, particularly in Illinois and Arizona, are well known, the committee’s report describes a Russian intelligence effort more far-reaching than the federal government has previously acknowledged.”

Washington Post: It’s not just the Russians anymore as Iranians and others turn up disinformation efforts ahead of 2020 vote.

........SNIP"

[FBaggins]

2. They aren't

Voting systems aren’t connected to the internet. They’re stand-alone machines.

[FBaggins]

4. They aren't hacking the voting machines

Attacks have been made on voter databases and similar, but still no reporting of something that would directly impact vote counts on Election Day.

[FBaggins]

8. That doesn't make sense in context

They have nothing to do with the tabulation of the votes.

[FBaggins]

12. You didn't? Did someone hack your account?

“why not tabulate the votes [the way] they did before the Internet took over our lives?”

[FBaggins]

14. Happens all the time

Good thing they don’t have access to our bank accounts.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. altered voter databases can certainly directly impact vote counts

How many voters were turned away?

[FBaggins]

7. Not really

Your position assumes that significant numbers of people would show up to vote... find that they were no longer registered... and never complain?

There have been thousands who complained for understandable reasons (wrong precinct, failure to vote in multiple elections and confirm their registration, etc.) but I haven’t seen ANY stories of people just magically disappearing from the roles without explanation. That kind of hacking would leave a trail (e.g., you voted in the last three elections and haven’t moved... yet now you’re off the list and there’s no record of the reason for removal)

[Hermit-The-Prog]

11. it's part and parcel with voter suppression

Kemp’s office also put 53,000 voter registrations on hold, nearly 70 percent of which are for black voters, by using an error-prone “exact match” system, which stops voter registrations if there are any discrepancies, down to dropped hyphens, with other government records.

Other problems also popped up in Georgia throughout the day, including long voting lines and technical errors. That led to voting places extending their hours very late into the night.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/7/18071438/midterm-election-results-voting-rights-georgia-florida

None of the "technical errors" were due to altered databases? None of the mismatches?

It doesn't pass the smell test for Russian "hackers" to get access to voter databases and not make maximum use of it to steer elections in their own interests.

[FBaggins]

17. I don't see how

Voter suppression efforts (or their legitimate cousins) leave a clear paper trail. You might cast a provisional ballot or even not be able to vote, but there would be a clear reason. “You showed up on a voter role in another state so we removed you when you didn’t reply to our two letters to your address” - when it was someone with a similar name.

Deletion from the database would be easy to identify. You were there and then you were gone with no paperwork for why... and the db backup still shows the old registration. And this would have to affect hundreds of thousands of voters (if not millions), yet I haven’t seen a single case reported.


It doesn't pass the smell test for Russian "hackers" to get access to voter databases and not make maximum use of it to steer elections in their own interests.

A couple responses to that. First, few of the reported hack attempts actually gained access. Second... the most likely target for such hacking would have been information gathering (targeting ads perhaps).

One other thing to consider. My firewall and security systems frequently report unsuccessful hack attempts on my home pc. They’re from all over the world, but Russia is a common culprit. They’re casting a very wide net for vulnerable computers. I’m not at all surprised that systems in all 50 states were hit... but that doesn’t mean that the offending system knew what was on the other end of the connection in all of those cases.

[trueblue2007]

15. OREGON VOTES BY MAIL ---- What did the stupid Russians think they would do to us?

[FBaggins]

18. See the last paragraph of my #17

Pretty much all computers on the internet get hit with hack attempts and computers in Russia are a common source. Common security tools deal with the vast majority.

[Maru Kitteh]

19. They always have the option of plucking Dems off of voting lists.

Much of Montana votes by mail too. We came within FIVE PERCENT in a special election to turning our lone congressional seat from red to BLUE in 2017.

Trump made it his MISSION IN LIFE to unseat John Tester in 2018 - in a state Trump won by 20 POINTS - and Democrats SHOWED UP and sent Trump away with his tail between his fat, under-employed legs.

Kicking a some Dems off the vote-by-mail list could accomplish much here.

[lpbk2713]

9. But the GOP doesn't care.

Don't bother them with trivial matters like dismantling our country.

[Initech]

16. Hell no, they're in on it.