posted November 13, 2020 07:41 AM            

(from the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, "an official website of the United States government") http://www.cisa.gov/news/2020/11/12/joint-statement-elect ions-infrastructure-government-coordinating-council-election

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posted November 13, 2020 08:08 AM            

One is internet access to voting systems.

The other is the mail-in ballot system.

Trump was complaining about the mail-in ballots not internet connectivity of the hardware from foreign countries, although he had an executive order pertaining to this.

But now we are finding other issues also.

What it looks like, is Trump is getting ready to fire several people and they are trying to get the media to buy-in to protect their livelihood.

------------------------------------------

JUNE 2, 2020

The official said the agency is focused on protecting the voting infrastructure, not the president�fs claims about mail-in voting fraud.

posted November 13, 2020 11:58 AM            

I have not looked too much into the organization you are posting about because of lack of time, but from what i have gathered so far, here are my thoughts:

That statement you quoted was rather extreme. For that organization to call it "the most secure" is premature, as we are still finding out irregularities and serious questions are being raised about Dominion, the company whose software was used and the "glitches" that all went in Biden's favor. Also, in Pennsylvania, according to Giuliani's lawsuit, republican observers were prevented from observing about 300,000 votes being counted. If true, that is a major election transparency violation.

So for this company to come out with that blanket statement at a time when the election results are being contested seems to be part of a gaslighting pattern which feeds the narrative conspiracy of groups that speak of deep state and media collusion.

When I watch CNN and the like, there is a chorus of "baseless election fraud allegations" narrative. The word BASELESS comes back over and over, as a mantra. Well, from what my eyes and ears and brain and spidy sense tell me, I am detecting severe election fraud, but I am presently having a wait and see. I do firmly believe the truth will come out.

posted November 13, 2020 12:00 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by SecretGeek:
I think there are two main issues, but likely more, like Avid software on Dominion hardware and having a business relationship (ownership) of Feinstein's husband (Blum).

One is internet access to voting systems.

The other is the mail-in ballot system.

Trump was complaining about the mail-in ballots not internet connectivity of the hardware from foreign countries, although he had an executive order pertaining to this.

But now we are finding other issues also.

What it looks like, is Trump is getting ready to fire several people and they are trying to get the media to buy-in to protect their livelihood.

---

Thanks for explaining Secretgeek.

posted November 13, 2020 12:06 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Belage:
Voix_de_la_Mer, I really appreciate that you are asking thoughtful questions, that invite thoughtful exchanges.

I have not looked too much into the organization you are posting about because of lack of time, but from what i have gathered so far, here are my thoughts:

That statement you quoted was rather extreme. For that organization to call it "the most secure" is premature, as we are still finding out irregularities and serious questions are being raised about Dominion, the company whose software was used and the "glitches" that all went in Biden's favor. Also, in Pennsylvania, according to Giuliani's lawsuit, republican observers were prevented from observing about 300,000 votes being counted. If true, that is a major election transparency violation.

So for this company to come out with that blanket statement at a time when the election results are being contested seems to be part of a gaslighting pattern which feeds the narrative conspiracy of groups that speak of deep state and media collusion.

When I watch CNN and the like, there is a chorus of "baseless election fraud allegations" narrative. The word BASELESS comes back over and over, as a mantra. Well, from what my eyes and ears and brain and spidy sense tell me, I am detecting severe election fraud, but I am presently having a wait and see. I do firmly believe the truth will come out.

---

It's nice to be appreciated! I am genuinely interested.

So, I guess we will just have to wait for the results of the investigations then.

The statement was linked through the British media, a BBC article I read today. I'll link it below. Do you think the BBC are colluding in gaslighting the American people?

posted November 13, 2020 02:57 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Belage:
Voix_de_la_Mer, I really appreciate that you are asking thoughtful questions, that invite thoughtful exchanges.

I have not looked too much into the organization you are posting about because of lack of time, but from what i have gathered so far, here are my thoughts:

That statement you quoted was rather extreme. For that organization to call it "the most secure" is premature, as we are still finding out irregularities and serious questions are being raised about Dominion, the company whose software was used and the "glitches" that all went in Biden's favor. Also, in Pennsylvania, according to Giuliani's lawsuit, republican observers were prevented from observing about 300,000 votes being counted. If true, that is a major election transparency violation.

So for this company to come out with that blanket statement at a time when the election results are being contested seems to be part of a gaslighting pattern which feeds the narrative conspiracy of groups that speak of deep state and media collusion.

When I watch CNN and the like, there is a chorus of "baseless election fraud allegations" narrative. The word BASELESS comes back over and over, as a mantra. Well, from what my eyes and ears and brain and spidy sense tell me, I am detecting severe election fraud, but I am presently having a wait and see. I do firmly believe the truth will come out.

---

posted November 13, 2020 03:02 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Voix_de_la_Mer:
Thanks for explaining Secretgeek.

Didn't Trump encourage voters to vote in person and Biden encouraged them to vote by mail? That would no doubt cause a discrepancy.

---

posted November 13, 2020 03:40 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Belage:
Voix_de_la_Mer, I really appreciate that you are asking thoughtful questions, that invite thoughtful exchanges.

I have not looked too much into the organization you are posting about because of lack of time, but from what i have gathered so far, here are my thoughts:

That statement you quoted was rather extreme. For that organization to call it "the most secure" is premature, as we are still finding out irregularities and serious questions are being raised about Dominion, the company whose software was used and the "glitches" that all went in Biden's favor. Also, in Pennsylvania, according to Giuliani's lawsuit, republican observers were prevented from observing about 300,000 votes being counted. If true, that is a major election transparency violation.

So for this company to come out with that blanket statement at a time when the election results are being contested seems to be part of a gaslighting pattern which feeds the narrative conspiracy of groups that speak of deep state and media collusion.

When I watch CNN and the like, there is a chorus of "baseless election fraud allegations" narrative. The word BASELESS comes back over and over, as a mantra. Well, from what my eyes and ears and brain and spidy sense tell me, I am detecting severe election fraud, but I am presently having a wait and see. I do firmly believe the truth will come out.

---

Belage, despite the gaslighting by the media, the evidence that is coming out demonstrates widespread fraud across multiple states. What is happening before our eyes is unreal. Joe Biden "President elect" is an illusion that's being orchestrated by powerful agencies within our government with the help of the media. I thought to myself "Neptune must be involved" and it is. In the U.S. chart, both transiting Neptune and the Nodes are forming a Grand Cross with the U.S. Neptune, which I believe illustrates what is happening right now.

I know the Sibley chart is the one most often used, but in the Gemini rising chart that I use for a number of reasons, the transiting Nodes are conjunct the ASC-DESC axis. In addition, in the Gemini rising chart, President Trump's Nodes, along with his Sun, Uranus, and Moon are conjunct the ASC-DESC axis.

It seems to me this election at this time is at least one of the most significant periods in our history and that President Trump is inextricably a part of this.

There are other things, but I'll leave it at that.

posted November 13, 2020 05:06 PM            

quote:

---

Also, in Pennsylvania, according to Giuliani's lawsuit, republican observers were prevented from observing about 300,000 votes being counted. If true, that is a major election transparency violation.

---

Well, only the distance required for the observer was violated due to the virus situation.

posted November 13, 2020 05:18 PM            

quote:

---

Well, only the distance required for the observer was violated due to the virus situation.

---

Rudy Giuliani, who is actually investigating these matters has sworn afidavits by multiple eye witnesses testifying that Republican poll watchers in Philadelphia were not present during the counting of over 600,000 ballots.

When Republicans were present, such as in Michigan, for example, the distance was 20 to 30 feet away.

posted November 13, 2020 07:20 PM            

quote:

---

Can these guys be trusted? If not, why?

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Dominion Voting Systems Officer of Strategy and SECURITY Eric Coomer Admitted in 2016 Vendors and Election Officials Have Access to Manipulate the Vote

Dr. Coomer�fs statement brings to light a very serious issue all voters should understand. Voting systems must be re-certified each time they make changes to the hardware or software. Recertification is an expensive and time consuming process. What Dr. Coomer told the Board is that Dominion Voting does not go back for recertification of software when threats to their code are discovered. Rather, they rely on post-election audits and providing advice to election jurisdictions about security. I have reviewed all of the recertification documents produced by Dominion, and I do not recall any software adjustments for security purposes.

This is the reality of the security of your vote. Software systems that count and record the vote across Illinois and throughout the USA are not updated to address security problems, and even if they were, the software can be completely bypassed by going to the data tables that drive the systems.

http://thespectator.info/2020/11/13/dominion-voting-systems-officer-of-strategy-and-security-eric-coomer-admitted-in-2016-vendors-and-election-officials-have-access-to-manipulate-t he-vote/

posted November 13, 2020 07:27 PM            

The question is: was there any relationship between Coomer and CISA and if so, what was it? Also, was Ware informed about the vulnerabilities in the Dominion system? If he was, that's a problem. If he wasn't that's also a problem.

posted November 13, 2020 07:43 PM            

Valerie Boyd served for eight years in the Obama Administration as Deputy Executive Secretary in the National Security Council.

This suggests Boyd is an Obama loyalist, who opposes the President.

This statement by DHS came right after President Trump tweeted that Dominion had deleted 27 million votes nationwide.

posted November 13, 2020 08:47 PM            

(paraphrasing)Democratic senators and members of Congress have reported problems with voting systems for years to the FBI and the government and nobody has done a thing about it. She says the people in the election security part of DHS (CISA) should be fired and that FBI director Chris Wray should be fired.

posted November 14, 2020 12:18 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Voix_de_la_Mer:
"When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."

(from the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, "an official website of the United States government") http://www.cisa.gov/news/2020/11/12/joint-statement-elect ions-infrastructure-government-coordinating-council-election

---

posted November 14, 2020 03:13 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dhyana:
To say that this statement is from CISA is misleading. There are a couple of people from CISA here, but there are numerous other organizations, including election voting systems manufacturers, who obviously have a vested interest that information about vulnerabilities in their product not be made public.

---

Referencing the source of this statement as CISA, when the source of this statement IS CISA is the opposite of misleading.

posted November 14, 2020 11:21 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Voix_de_la_Mer:
You seem paranoid that I have an ulterior motive.

---

Not at all.

posted November 14, 2020 11:33 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by iQ:
Any Software vulnerability can be spotted from the C++ or C Language Source Code in less than a day by experts. The US Senate can force Dominion to share the Code. If they don't, the source code can still be parsed into Assembly Language Instructions, and any Programming "Call" to a Subroutine outside the Main Program that is "Changing" Data can be identified again in a couple of days by System Software Programmers. The Fact that Pentagon has not done that in several years means there is no issue, because they always do that to check for backdoor hacking by Foreign Adversaries.

---

Sources?

posted November 14, 2020 11:46 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Voix_de_la_Mer:
Referencing the source of this statement as CISA, when the source of this statement IS CISA is the opposite of misleading.

---

There are multiple parties to this statement, including people from CISA, and companies in the private sector, including election software manufacturers. That's different than a statement by a government agency alone and therefore is misleading.

posted November 14, 2020 01:20 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dhyana:
There are multiple parties to this statement, including people from CISA, and companies in the private sector, including election software manufacturers. That's different than a statement by a government agency alone and therefore is misleading.

---

I'll say it again. I referenced the SOURCE of the statement (where I found it). I did not say anything about how the statement was constructed or by whom. And the source of the statement is CISA.

That aside. By publishing it on their website they endorse the statement anyway.

posted November 14, 2020 01:39 PM            

quote:

---

There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."

---

posted November 14, 2020 01:52 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dhyana:

This statement is currently being challenged in court by Sidney Powell, among others, who says she has evidence disproving this claim. Until all the evidence is made public, assuming it is, and examined, it would be premature to accept this statement as true.

---

And allegations of voter fraud should be treat by this same logic.

posted November 14, 2020 02:02 PM            

By Angelo Fichera and Saranac Hale Spencer

Posted on November 13, 2020

Quick Take

A baseless conspiracy theory claims that a secret supercomputer was used to switch votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Experts — and the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — have said the theory is a hoax and that safeguards, including paper trails, would deter such an effort.

Full Story

As President-elect Joe Biden prepares a transition to the White House and President Donald Trump mounts challenges to election results, federal and state officials have declared that the 2020 election was the “most secure in American history.”

But a conspiracy theory that has been swirling online suggests the opposite, baselessly claiming that a supercomputer and special software were used to systematically switch votes and cement Biden’s victory.

That bogus theory is directly disputed by federal and state officials, as well as experts who study election security.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has flatly rejected such claims. The agency’s director, Chris Krebs — who was appointed by Trump — called the theory “nonsense” and a “hoax.”

CISA has said that safeguards — including auditable logs and software checks — used by states ensure accuracy in the vote totals.

Still, in the days after the election, the theory has received significant attention on social media and on national TV.

Sidney Powell, an attorney who has represented Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, espoused it on Fox Business on Nov. 6 — saying that ballots were changed “using the Hammer program and a software program called Scorecard” — and that she had “evidence that that is exactly what happened.” She repeated the theory two days later to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.

We reached out to Powell to ask what her supposed “evidence” was and she didn’t provide any, telling us instead to “Stay tuned.”

Dubious Origins

The conspiracy theory appeared several days before the election on a dubious blog called the American Report, which ran an Oct. 31 story claiming that Biden was “using SCORECARD and THE HAMMER To Steal Another Presidential Election.”

The story cited a so-called “whistleblower,” Dennis Montgomery, to claim that an intelligence supercomputer (“HAMMER”) and accompanying software (“SCORECARD”) had the capability to hack elections and steal votes. It went on to claim with no proof that Biden and former President Barack Obama had won reelection in 2012 using the system, and that Biden had beaten his rival in the Democratic primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders, through such means.

Montgomery has a history of making dubious claims going back more than a decade.

A company he co-owned, called eTreppid, won millions of dollars in federal defense contracts following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But, according to an FBI investigation in 2006, his partner in the business said that he deceived Pentagon officials.

In one case, according to an FBI interview with the business partner, Montgomery fabricated a test for Department of Defense officials of the company’s “recognition software” for weapons. While the officials waited inside the company’s office, the business partner said, Montgomery took a toy bazooka into a nearby field and, instead of having the technology actually recognize the weapon, he pinged the cell phone of an employee, who was waiting to push a button and make a picture of a bazooka appear on the screen.

In another case detailed in a 2014 book, the CIA believed that one of Montgomery’s programs could detect secret codes from al Qaeda that were hidden in broadcasts from the news network Al-Jazeera. Although this led to the grounding of U.S.-bound flights from France, Britain and Mexico in December 2003, the technology was ultimately determined to be bogus. Montgomery objected to that characterization and sued the author and publisher. But he failed to provide evidence that his technology actually worked, and the judge ruled against him.

Flawed Theory

The theory espoused in the American Report story doesn’t make sense for several reasons, Dan Wallach, a computer science professor at Rice University who researches voting security, told us in a phone interview.

The story claims that “SCORECARD steals elections by tampering with the computers at transfer points of state election computer systems and outside third party data election result vaults.”

If a hacking operation tried to change votes at the state aggregation level, Wallach said, there are county-level results with which to compare those figures. And if a county’s votes were manipulated, there are results from precincts — and individual paper ballots or individual paperless voting machines — to verify those figures.

Ballot boxes, voting machines and election equipment are also subject to various chain-of-custody protections.

“The implication of this conspiracy theory is that there can be an undetectable, irrevocable change made — and that implication is false,” he said.

Likewise, J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, told us the conspiracy theory is “nonsense.”

“Most votes across the country are counted by computer scanners at polling places or, for mail-in ballots, at central locations in each county,” Halderman, who is also director of the university’s Center for Computer Security and Society, said in an email. “Election workers then copy the totals from each scanner (most often using memory cards or USB sticks) to a computer called an election management system, which adds them up and produces the initial, unofficial results.”

“However, every ballot scanner is required by law (under the Help America Vote Act of 2002) to produce a paper printout summarizing the vote totals for the ballots it counted,” he continued. “Nearly every state, before it certifies the official election results, compares the reported results to the physical printout from each scanner. If an error or fraud affected the reporting process, it will be caught during this process, before the results are declared official. These routine checks both add an extra layer of security and help deter attackers from targeting the reporting process in the first place.”

The American Report story also argued that votes would be stolen in Florida when the state transferred data to a third party called VR Systems. As the fact-checking website Lead Stories points out, that company doesn’t even work with vote tabulation.

VR Systems Chief Operating Officer Ben Martin confirmed in a statement to us that the company “does not do voter tabulation and is not connected to county or state voter tabulation systems.” The company instead “provides elections software and services to election officials who manage the voter check-in process” and also supports officials with websites and databases for voters to check polling locations and voter registration status.

And while the American Report story claims the company has contracts in eight states, Martin said the company only does work in three.

CNN Video Shows Error, Not Fraud

On Twitter and Facebook, thousands of users shared a false claim that a CNN video from election night is evidence of the supposed vote-stealing operation in action.

It’s not.

In the video, vote totals for Pennsylvania displayed on screen by CNN can be seen going up for Biden by 19,958 as they go down for Trump by that same amount.

But the error was actually a simple mistake by a research firm that gathers results data for CNN and others; it wasn’t a change in the reporting by election officials. (It’s worth noting, though, that those vote tallies are unofficial tallies, not final, official results.) The mistake was corrected about an hour later.

Edison Research, which provides vote tabulation data to CNN and other networks, said that the moment of Trump dropping by 19,958 was caused by a brief reporting error on its end.

Rob Farbman, Edison’s executive vice president, told us that Edison did receive the correct vote totals from Armstrong County in Pennsylvania through a state feed — which at that point in time was 24,233 votes for Trump and 4,275 votes for Biden. But a team member, while scouring individual county vote totals, then mistakenly entered the county’s totals backwards — 24,233 votes for Biden and 4,275 votes for Trump.

A CNN source also confirmed that the matter came down to vote totals in Armstrong County being briefly transposed in the feed provided to the network, but that the accurate figures were soon restored.

“It was simple human error,” Farbman told us by email, noting the mistake was corrected about an hour later.

Trump has secured 27,340 votes in Armstrong County, compared with Biden’s 8,417. Biden’s lead in the state is about 60,000 votes.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here.

This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here for more.
Sources

Dennis L. Montgomery v. James Risen. “Memorandum Opinion.” U.S. District Court, District of Columbia. 15 Jul 2016.

Farbman, Rob. Executive vice president, Edison Research. Email to FactCheck.org. 13 Nov 2020.

“Government’s Compliance With Court Order of August 17, 2006.” U.S. District Court, District of Nevada. 11 Sep 2006.

Halderman, J. Alex. Professor of computer science and engineering, University of Michigan. Email to FactCheck.org. 11 Nov 2020.

“Joint Statement From Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & The Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees.” U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. 12 Nov 2020.

Powell, Sidney. Attorney. Email to FactCheck.org. 11 Nov 2020.

Krebs, Chris (@CISAKrebs). “Same as yesterday, Hammer and Scorecard is still a hoax. Thats it. That’s the tweet.” Twitter. 8 Nov 2020.

Krebs, Chris (@CISAKrebs). “To be crystal clear on Downwards arrow, I’m specifically referring to the Hammer and Scorecard nonsense. It’s just that – nonsense. This is not a real thing, don’t fall for it and think 2x before you share. #Protect2020” Twitter. 7 Nov 2020.

Martin, Ben. Chief Operating Officer, VR Systems. Statement to FactCheck.org. 12 Nov 2020.

Miller, Dean. “Fact Check: Secret Super-Computer Is NOT Stealing Votes Through Voter Interface Contractor.” Lead Stories. 3 Nov 2020.

“Pennsylvania Elections – County Results | Armstrong.” Pennsylvania Department of State. Accessed 13 Nov 2020.

“Pennsylvania Elections – Summary Results | Statewide.” Pennsylvania Department of State. Accessed 13 Nov 2020.

Richardson, Louise. “James Risen’s ‘Pay Any Price.'” New York Times. 15 Oct 2014.

“Rumor Control.” U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Accessed 10 Nov 2020.

Sommer, Will. “Infamous ‘Hoax’ Artist Behind Trumpworld’s New Voter Fraud Claim.” Daily Beast. 8 Nov 2020.

Wallach, Dan. Professor of computer science, Rice University. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 13 Nov 2020.

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