Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Sensitive election system files obtained by attorneys working to overturn President Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat were shared with election deniers, conspiracy theorists and right-wing commentators, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post. A Georgia computer forensics firm hired by the attorneys placed the files on a server, where company records show they were downloaded dozens of times. Among the downloaders were accounts associated with a Texas meteorologist who has appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show; a podcaster who suggested political enemies should be executed; a former pro-surfer who pushed disproved theories that the 2020 election was manipulated; and a self-described former “seduction and pickup coach” who claims to also have been a hacker.

Plaintiffs in a long-running federal lawsuit over the security of Georgia’s voting systems obtained the new records from the company, Atlanta-based SullivanStrickler, under a subpoena to one of its executives. The records include contracts between the firm and the Trump-allied attorneys, notably Sidney Powell. The data files are described as copies of components from election systems in Coffee County, Ga., and Antrim County, Mich. A series of data leaks and alleged breaches of local elections offices since 2020 has prompted criminal investigations and fueled concerns among some security experts that public disclosure of information collected from voting systems could be exploited by hackers and others people seeking to manipulate future elections.

Access to U.S. voting system software and other components is tightly regulated, and the government classifies those systems as “critical infrastructure.” The new batch of records shows for the first time how the files copied from election systems were distributed to people in multiple states. Marilyn Marks, executive director of the nonprofit Coalition for Good Governance, which is one of the plaintiffs in the Georgia lawsuit, said the records appeared to show the files were handled recklessly. “The implications go far beyond Coffee County or Georgia,” Marks said.

In a statement to The Post, SullivanStrickler said the attorneys who hired the firm directed it “to contact county officials to obtain access to certain data” from Dominion Voting machines in Georgia and Michigan. “Likewise, the firm was directed by attorneys to distribute that data to certain individuals,” the statement said. The firm said that it “had [and has] no reason to believe that, as officers of the court, these attorneys would ask or direct SullivanStrickler to do anything either improper or illegal.” Dominion Voting Systems has been the target of baseless claims from Trump, his advisers and allied news organizations that its machines were hacked and were programmed to flip votes from one candidate to another. The Colorado-based company has filed a host of defamation lawsuits over the statements.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/22/election-system-copied-files-trump/

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No paywall link

[NullTuples]

1. Always Dominion Voting Systems. They've got their conspiracy theories about it, but...

at this point every time they steal once-secure data from a voting system it's Dominion. The vendor that does not overtly agree to help the Republican party.

Now, they could just be attacking it in the hopes of influencing counties to avoid the brand. But I don't think so. Because that data that they steal is incredibly valuable. It's why in 2016 the GOP had to cobble together Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and purchased data to triangulate individual voters. Now they're just stealing that already triangulated data directly from the voting systems, under the cover of not trusting the vendor.

[Lonestarblue]

3. Every lawyer and county person associated with this election fraud needs to be prosecuted NOW.

Some of them are running for election in November to be in charge of future elections.

[Evolve Dammit]

11. x 1000! Damn right. Wholeheartedly agree.

[iluvtennis]

19. Ditto. n/t

[NullTuples]

26. I feel like we're watching something get built, one brick at a time...

Sometimes part of it gets knocked down, but they're relentless and just keep throwing bodies at the job.

[orangecrush]

29. Like Trump's wall?

[Fiendish Thingy]

2. Whoever granted access to these crazies should get a subpoena for a grand jury.

If it wasn’t illegal for the counties to release the election software to third parties, it sure as hell should have been.

I hope Stacy Abrams is making this a part of her campaign.

Seems to me that somebody (Marc Elias) should seek an injunction forcing the entire state of Georgia to use paper ballot that are hand counted in November, since I highly doubt a new, secure software system can be in place in time.

[mopinko]

4. what a bunch of clowns.

maybe they share a cell block for a long, long time.

[Botany]

5. I have done "voting stuff" for 18 + years

This is illegal as hell. Voting machines should be under the control of the COUNTY BOEs and those
machines and systems are also overseen by the Sec. of State too (at least in the midwest).

Who gave those ass clowns the right to "inspect" those machines over half after election day?
Those machines were all supposed to be sealed with id #s and letter seals and those seals are never
to be broken until the next time those machines are to be used and that is before an election day
to run system checks on them and then resealed.

God only knows what kind of malware, spyware, or ?? could have been loaded onto the hardware or
software of the machines' CPUs.

[Novara]

8. Once they've been breached like this, the machines have to be replaced, don't they?

These fucktards need to be prosecuted and made to pay for new voting systems.

And Manchin and Sinema are protecting the filibuster, not our right to vote.

We COULD protect ourselves and our votes, if it wasn't for those two preening fucks.

[Botany]

9. I am by no means a computer engineer or scientist but those machines should be considered to ....

.... have had their security compromised and should be replaced. And those costs should be taken
from all those billionaires, right wing groups, and the GOP members who were pushing "the stop the
steal" shit.

Who at the county BOE or Sec. of State's office signed off on this? People need to be arrested,
given fair trials, and then sent to prison.

[Novara]

10. I believe they have replaced the machines in Arizona

After the ridiculous cyber ninjas "audit."

Nobody should have access to those machines except for election officials.

[Botany]

12. We should junk those electronic voting machines and go back to the old ones or paper ballots ....

.... once we switched to electronic voting machines the exit polls and the "real" vote stopped
agreeing with each other.

[Novara]

15. Absentee paper ballots because of COVID made 2020 the most honest election in years.

You can't hack paper, and there's a physical audit trail.

[RussBLib]

28. but of course there has to be strict controls

and in this era, I don't know.

Paper ballots were pretty easy to manipulate in years past. Missing boxes, votes mysteriously showing up, stuffing ballot boxes blatantly. All kinds of mischief, which in part prompted the move to electronic means.

[questionseverything]

32. Definitely need a strict, transparent chain of custody

[questionseverything]

16. Hand counted paper ballots are the only way the average citizen can oversee elections

Voting machines are computers and can never be made completely safe

[KS Toronado]

31. Been saying this almost 20 years now

[Mme. Defarge]

18. Yes.

[Cosmocat]

21. That's the way it is in our eastern state, too

This is another clear as day legal breech that should be treated w extreme urgency that is being treated FAR too leisurely.

[Botany]

27. Who signed off on letting people with absolutely no..

... right to break the seals and look at the hardware, software, and electronic architecture of those
machines? And from what I have read this happened
starting a month and a 1/2 to 2 months after election
day.

This is crazy. We are playing by the rules and honesty
and those mother fuckers see themselves as appointed by God to install a Christo Fascist government so the brown people and the majority of Americans get to control by democratic elections.

[SheltieLover]

6. Kicking for visibility

[FakeNoose]

7. Of course they were, that's what "Stop the Steal" was all about

The Repukes knew they lost, or at least that Chump lost. But they wanted the secret voting data from the supposedly well-guarded voting machines so they could SEE HOW TO REALLY STEAL IT THE NEXT TIME!

That's what all those fake audits were for... to steal the voting data.

[Evolve Dammit]

13. sounds right

[questionseverything]

17. Just the fact that machines could be compromised means

They shouldn’t be used

At least not as the last word

[iluvtennis]

20. But the machines weren't compromised. Georgia election officials provided tfg attorneys access

to the machines to download the files. Allowing them to access the machines was non compliant with the security protocols for the voting machines.

So, it was the election officials that were compromised -- nothing wrong with the machines themselves.

[questionseverything]

22. They could of been , no one actually knows

Because there were paper ballots that were hand counted we know Biden won

Voting machines are just computers and who ever had access can control them

In this case some insiders gave some crazies access but why should democracy depend on insiders doing the right thing?

Way more election supervisors are republicans than democrats

We need transparent systems that all voters can oversee

Reality winner spent years in prison because she warned us tfg’s russians had gotten into way more states voting systems than we were being told

[iluvtennis]

23. Agree about voting machines being computers and hence risk for compromise is there. But they

can be secured with the proper security protocols being put in place - for example having two sets of machines doing the counting where one set of machines is there to verify and validate what is reported by the other machine.

BTW, until the proper security controls are in place for voting machines, I think paper ballots should be used exclusively - just not sure of the practicality of it though.

[questionseverything]

24. Sorry but two machines can easily be programmed to give the same result

If we used paper ballots and scanners, but hand counted the top two races and a random race, with easy access to hand counts in other races that would be pretty accurate

In Florida it’s illegal to hand count votes, a recount is just ballots being rerun through scanners

I think that’s why it’s so red there

[iluvtennis]

25. Software and computers were my profession for decades, so I respectfully disagree that they

couldn't be compromised with the right security protocols implemented and independently verified and validated - it would cost millions of dollars to do it, but it's doable.

BTW, I could live with your proposal of paper ballots and scanners - it would work!

[Evolve Dammit]

14. "We" (as a Nation) never addressed the issues in 2000. All efforts were rebuked by Repukes.

[Martin68]

30. Breaking the law. Typical Republican move.

[Bayard]

33. K&R