Russian hackers attack US election systems
What, me worry? Russian hackers attempted and were partly successful in June in accessing the election databases of Arizona and Illinois.
Hackers targeted voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona, and the FBI alerted Arizona officials in June that Russians were behind the assault on the election system in that state. The bureau described the threat as “credible” and significant, “an eight on a scale of one to 10,” Matt Roberts, a spokesman for Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan (R), said Monday. As a result, Reagan shut down the state’s voter registration system for nearly a week.
It turned out that the hackers had not compromised the state system or even any county system. They had, however, stolen the username and password of a single election official in Gila County.
The article describes in detail the overall bad situation, including a number of additional attacks as well as the poor security surrounding the online voting option that more than 30 states use.
As usual, we are being told not to worry by the responsible government officials:
Tom Hicks, chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, an agency set up by Congress after the 2000 Florida recount to maintain election integrity, said he is confident that states have sufficient safeguards in place to ward off attempts to manipulate data. For example, if a voter’s name were deleted and did not show up on the precinct list, the individual could still cast a provisional ballot, Hicks said. Once the voter’s status was confirmed, the ballot would be counted. Hicks also said the actual systems used to cast votes “are not hooked up to the Internet” and so “there’s not going to be any manipulation of data.” However, more than 30 states have some provisions for online voting, primarily for voters living overseas or serving in the military.
Hicks has made me feel so much better!
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What, me worry? Russian hackers attempted and were partly successful in June in accessing the election databases of Arizona and Illinois.
Hackers targeted voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona, and the FBI alerted Arizona officials in June that Russians were behind the assault on the election system in that state. The bureau described the threat as “credible” and significant, “an eight on a scale of one to 10,” Matt Roberts, a spokesman for Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan (R), said Monday. As a result, Reagan shut down the state’s voter registration system for nearly a week.
It turned out that the hackers had not compromised the state system or even any county system. They had, however, stolen the username and password of a single election official in Gila County.
The article describes in detail the overall bad situation, including a number of additional attacks as well as the poor security surrounding the online voting option that more than 30 states use.
As usual, we are being told not to worry by the responsible government officials:
Tom Hicks, chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, an agency set up by Congress after the 2000 Florida recount to maintain election integrity, said he is confident that states have sufficient safeguards in place to ward off attempts to manipulate data. For example, if a voter’s name were deleted and did not show up on the precinct list, the individual could still cast a provisional ballot, Hicks said. Once the voter’s status was confirmed, the ballot would be counted. Hicks also said the actual systems used to cast votes “are not hooked up to the Internet” and so “there’s not going to be any manipulation of data.” However, more than 30 states have some provisions for online voting, primarily for voters living overseas or serving in the military.
Hicks has made me feel so much better!
I must unfortunately ask you for your financial support because I do not depend on ads and rely entirely on the generosity of readers to keep Behind the Black running. You can either make a one time donation for whatever amount you wish, or you sign up for a monthly subscription ranging from $2 to $15 through Paypal or $3 to $50 through Patreon.
Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Your support is even more essential to me because I not only keep this site free from advertisements, I do not use the corrupt social media companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to promote my work. I depend wholly on the direct support of my readers.
You can provide that support to Behind The Black with a contribution via Patreon or PayPal. To use Patreon, go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. For PayPal click one of the following buttons:
If Patreon or Paypal don't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
Or you can donate by using Zelle through your bank. You will need to give my name and email address (found at the bottom of the "About" page). The best part of this electronic option is that no fees will be deducted! What you donate will be what I receive.
Provincial ballots wouldn’t help states that vote by mail.
I believe this to be a faults flag operation, an excuse for the federal government to take active control over all state and county voting districts. ( I don’t have the link) They will say it is to protect us. It’s for our own good and for the good of the democracy against outside influence. To quote a famous Russian leader, “I don’t care Who votes, as long as I control the voting booth”.
Al Gore’s greatest contribution to the party politic was to sue over the hanging Chad which resulted in the removal of machine voting. Computer voting has proven to be fraudulent, full of ways to be manipulated, and the ability to preprogram for a predetermined result.
The unattended consequences of this action has resulted in hackers competing to determine the election results. The people at black box voting have estimated that only 5% of the voting is not tampered with. Many other states, like Washington, have passed laws forbidding recounts. The Internet is full of stories documenting irregularities in nearly every state. In most places, the women’s voting league are not allowed to oversee the counting or the process involved to verify the results. They are often not even allowed in the building in violation of state law’s.
In Utah, years ago, commissioner in charge of County elections asked an electronics repair man to look at a locked and sealed vote machine to satisfy his curiosity about the rumors. They found a modified smart phone motherboard with its Wi-Fi and cell functions active. We all know that cell phones are programmed to receive updates when activated or at a predetermined date.
To sum this up, there’s trillions of dollars changing hands, building and destroying of nations involving the most powerful country in the world. They would not leave this control to chance. There’s too much at stake…