Election Watcher Files Affidavit Saying He Saw Sequoia Employee Illegally Connect To E-Voting Tabulator

from the that-can't-be-good dept

Wed, Aug 25th 2010 5:28am — Mike Masnick

lavi d points us to a report from Jim March, on the Tucson Free Unix Group email list, claiming that he witnessed potentially illegal activity in observing part of the Arizona mail-in vote scanning operation in Maricopa County. He summarizes the issue thusly:

Basically, we caught Maricopa County elections in a felony today - cross-wiring the central tabulator to a non-secure laptop owned by Sequoia Voting Systems, complete with cellular modem card in there and live. And I couldn't get a picture. Need a micro-cam of some sort to get the proof. See also my affidavit filed with our attorney today.

Remember: by law, the central tabulator system on what's supposed to be an isolated local network is completely unpatched - it's not allowed to be modified in any way since the day it shipped in 2006 or 2007. Even if the Sequoia tech didn't cross-connect the cellmodem to the Ethernet (and both appeared to be live), he could have easily "pwned" the "secure" systems with any number of ancient script-kiddy exploits.

He then includes the affidavit he filed. Basically, he spotted a Sequoia employee hooked into the central tabulator, via an ethernet cable from his own laptop, and he saw that the laptop had an EVDO card from Sprint -- and that, apparently, is a big no-no, as explained. When he asked to take a photograph of this, he was denied and was told that he was being disruptive. Now, there's no suggestion here that anything nefarious was going on, but that this central machine, which is supposed to be kept away from the internet, was exposed in a way that it should not have been. At the very least, this raises serious questions about the security of those machines.

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Filed Under: arizona, e-voting, elections, jim march, maricopa county
Companies: sequoia

31 Comments

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ofb2632 (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 5:35am

Nothing to worry about! That is just sequioa rigging the elections again. We should be used to it by now. The Republicans are VERY CERTAIN that they are going to win in Nov. And now you know how!
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 5:49am

Re:
Funny, funny. I lived for 10 years in the 1990's in Broward County Fl. You know the county that caused all the election issues with Bush's election.

The one thing I know is that county consistently votes 90% Democrate and that the county election board was when I was there 100% Democrat.

And I am suppose to believe that a county that you could not elect a Republican to be dog catcher in stuffed baloit boxes to elect a Republican. BULL!
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 5:55am

Our public schools have failed us because nobody knows anything about the Electoral College or what it does. They think popular vote matters when it comes to presidential election!
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Berenerd (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 6:19am

Re:
Actually most people know the electoral college and how it works, however feel that it needs to be revamped because something that might have worked a few hundred years ago (1787) isn't working now and needs to be updated or ratified majorly.
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RocRizzo (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 6:42am

Elections no longer in the hands of citizenry
US elections are no longer in the hands of the citizenry, since the Bush Administration pushed through the HAVA (Hinder Americans from Voting Act). Now they are in the hands of software vendors, and the corporations that push these hackable electronic machines.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 6:43am

Going easy on them Mike?
"Basically, we caught Maricopa County elections in a felony today"

"Now, there's no suggestion here that anything nefarious was going on...."

Er, you mean BESIDES the committing of a felony involved in our most sacred of democratic principles taking place in one of the most volatile areas of our country right now? Come on, let's not make the mistake of complacency here. We're talking about a very important part of the country at the moment. Nation's futures have been steered by debates of far less import than what's going on in Arizona at the moment.

When it comes to elections, PARTICULARLY those that utilize relatively new technology, there is absolutely no room for, "whoops, sorry, I didn't know we couldn't do that. Innocent mistake, we promise".

I mean, is there really one REASONABLE reason for this action to have taken place? What innocent justification could there possibly be for this?
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Dark Helmet (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 6:44am

Re: Elections no longer in the hands of citizenry
"Now they are in the hands of software vendors, and the corporations that push these hackable electronic machines."

Checks and balances, my friend. We simply need to hack them back, and all will even out....
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NullOp, 25 Aug 2010 @ 6:47am

Raises a question
This does not raise a question. It invalidates the election, period. Will anyone ever get it through their head that the word never means NEVER! Apparently most people think the rules/laws don't apply to them!

Fire the employee and nullify the election!
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 6:52am

Re: Re: Elections no longer in the hands of citizenry
I can see it now, they hack, then we hack, then they hack back, then we hack back. In the end we get a report saying "A shocking 110% of the citizens of the US voted today" followed by the inevitable "the computer hacking group 'anonymous' is suspected."
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 7:11am

More proof why it should never be a crime to photograph things.
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Pixelation, 25 Aug 2010 @ 7:15am

"At the very least, this raises serious questions about the security of those machines."

It seems to me that the "security of those machines" question has been raised a number of times already. An even bigger question (raised in the article)is the security of the people handling those machines.
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Stuart, 25 Aug 2010 @ 7:19am

Re: Elections no longer in the hands of citizenry
What planet are you on? Oh the everything is Bushes fault planet.
Wake up. US elections have never been in our hands.
First there is the electoral college which almost always votes how we want them to but are under no obligation to do so.
Then we have election apathy, buses bring in union employees to vote, TV commercials that pander to the stupid paid for by big corporations and big unions.
Go ahead and pick a side. You are just to fucking dumb to realize that both sides are full of shit and you are just eating your shit sandwich while grinning from ear to ear telling everyone what kind of shit is in their sandwich.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 7:29am

There has never been any question about the security of the voting machines. They are NOT SECURE. PERIOD. They have no paper trail, so no proof, so no security. It the biggest scam we have ever been asked to digest. Oh November is coming and incumbents can kiss ass. Arizona can go ahead and secede from the union and we can really have the great border war.
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xs (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 8:14am

Re: Re:
Right, so voters in a county that couldn't elect a Republican to be a dog catcher somehow went to Bush all by themselves. That's convincing.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 8:17am

Re: Re:
I am sad to say that I disagree. There are three groups: Those who know but don't care, those who know and agree with you (you and I fall into this category), and the largest group are those that have no idea what an electoral college is (or if they do, they believe the popular vote gets electoral votes in 100% of cases).

Pure democracy will not work in many cases because the minority voice will be snuffed entirely, even if they're right. Electoral college has been shown to be a failure because it can be a very corrupt system where few people wield the power to completely go against the will of the people. We need to go back to Divine Mandate. The Invisible Pink Unicorn endorses DH to be the leader of the US.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 8:49am

Re: Re: Re:
Except for the part about how those few people have never changed the outcome of any presidential election to date, by voting "faithlessly". If you mean you believe that the electoral college is a failure that's fine, but it has not been *shown* to be a failure for the reason you indicate. The only way that it could have is if an elector voted against the will of the people (google "faithless elector") and impacted the outcome of the election.
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OMFG you Turd, 25 Aug 2010 @ 8:55am

Re:
So already, knowing that you are going to lose the elections in November, you are starting with the lies. Is that the only way you can sleep at night is being telling yourself that the majority of people think like you and the only reason the vote doesn't go your way is because the other guys cheated? Grow up. You and the left, with your hate, is what is really wrong with America.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 9:10am

funny its in maricopa county...
I find it strange that of all the counties its Maricopa where gee there sure arent any controversies going on and gee there hasnt been a ton of illegal activity by certain law enforcement personnel including a certain somebody that is also an elected official but I am sure this is all coincidence...
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Wolfy, 25 Aug 2010 @ 10:10am

Ah, the first rule in photographic journalism, get the shot. Then get permission if needed.
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Ron Rezendes (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 10:19am

I smell a Faux News fanboi!
"You and the left, with your hate, is what is really wrong with America."

"Hello kettle? This is the pot, you're black!"

I'm still not sure when being "left" or "right" meant you were the cause of the problems in this country that has consistently been screwed by both sides of the aisles in Congress, but I can tell you you'd be wrong if you're on either side pointing at the other. YOU are indeed what is really wrong with America because all you're after is winning the "Blame game" and neither "side" has really offered any significant long term solutions.

Follow your own advice and grow up you sniveling right-wing nut bag!!

This message brought to you by an Independent voter that is an equal opportunity hater of both Dem and Reps who think the other side is the problem, rather than really addressing the issues.
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Derek Bredensteiner (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 10:31am

Oy
Dude needs to work on his people skills, I can't help but think a cooler hand here would of resulted a more expedited explanation of what was going on instead of resulting in an affidavit calling election officials "angry" and "sneering".

What's most unsettling to me about this is how much authority the Sequoia employee seems to command in that situation. Reading the affidavit, it seems "the lead Maricopa County elections tech (John Stewart)" was unwilling to even even monitor the alleged incident, that he "couldn't get involved". Alright, that's fine, so who can get involved?
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Ron Rezendes (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 10:34am

Re: Re: Elections no longer in the hands of citizenry
Allow me to introduce to you the 53rd President of the United States of America: Anonymous Coward!!
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Fred Townes, 25 Aug 2010 @ 10:41am

voting
OK wake up people you are always going to have some one on both sides trying to rig the votes.
All we can do is hope we have a better system or do you really want to go back to hanging chads you can not be very smart !!!!

We still have the best and fairest elections in the world !!!
We do need to keep a eye on them but it looks like this guy did and noted it so we live with what we have and move on.
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slander (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 11:10am

Re: Re: Re: Elections no longer in the hands of citizenry
Allow me to introduce to you the 53rd President of the United States of America: moot!!
FTFY
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mattarse (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 11:29am

Re: Re:
I really like how you are able to decide that this is a lie and offer so much proof. You have changed my opinion completely. Thanks for the useful post. /sarcasm/
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known coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 12:17pm

I like the electoral college
I think it works as advertised, and helps keep the presidential elections out of the hands of the big cities and states, and throws a modicum of balance to the smaller localities.

Now back to the article, these machines are open invatations to voter fraud. ANYTHING electronic can be hacked and altered. We need to go back to mechanical and paper systems that can be verified.
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nasch (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 1:46pm

Re:
Great point. Force their hand. Make them try to confiscate the camera by force and then explain why.
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nasch (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 1:47pm

Re: voting
We still have the best and fairest elections in the world !!!

Citation needed.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2010 @ 6:27pm

No Worries...
I'm sure they were just "fixing" it.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2010 @ 6:32pm

Re: voting
All we can do is hope we have a better system or do you really want to go back to hanging chads you can not be very smart !!!!

As if those were the only two choices.

...we live with what we have and move on.

Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Just shut up and live with it, huh? Sorry, bagger, ain't gonna happen.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2010 @ 6:36pm

Re:
Ah, the first rule in photographic journalism, get the shot. Then get permission if needed.

Then call a lawyer to get you out of jail.
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