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Warning. With remote access to e-poll books (yes, vendors have it & I’m told they pass around a url to watch), bad actors cld track in real time how many votes they need & where to alter election outcomes. This wld NOT work w/ vote by mail. 1/
I remain very concerned about e-pollbooks, which have exploded in use since 2016. A former election official told me about the Election Day remote access & URL. 2/
I wrote about America’s largest e-pollbook vendor, Knowink, here. Knowink is managed by a former Republican election official. It’s product manager is Religious Right. It’s products are in 23 states now. 3/ https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/10/31/how-safe-is-the-us-election-from-hacking/
I was told about the passing around of a URL re: Tenex. They can watch voters sign in as they sign in. They can tell what party they are from. 4/
In theory, w/ e-pollbooks (electronic sign ins), bad actors cld fraudulently sign in real voters who rarely vote in order to pad vote totals. This wld work best at the end of Election Day. Mail voting wld obviously throw this off. 5/
These are risks. I do not know if any of this occurred. But they are risks. And a former election official was worried enough to mention it to me about Tenex. 6/
“The [Kentucky] State Finance and Administration Cabinet awarded a contract for electronic poll books to Tenex Software Solutions, a Tampa, Florida-based company, for up to 5,500 e-poll books for the state's 3,732 voting precincts.” - 7/26/19
7/ https://www.somerset-kentucky.com/news/local_news/e-poll-books-will-be-used-in-november/article_a77cc005-b36b-5fa7-8cf3-d23f27af008d.html
7/ https://www.somerset-kentucky.com/news/local_news/e-poll-books-will-be-used-in-november/article_a77cc005-b36b-5fa7-8cf3-d23f27af008d.html
8/ I keep trying to figure out why bad actors might prefer in person voting to vote by mail. Both systems use hackable electronics. At the moment, we don’t conduct evidence-based elections with either system. But this is one reason why they might prefer in person voting.
9/ The phrase evidence-based election was coined by @philipbstark. This is what it means.
10/ I’m not sure what this is about but I hope to find out! @robchandhok https://twitter.com/robchandhok/status/1326221819947347970
11/ BTW, vote by mail does use #HandMarkedPaperBallots, ie, a reliable paper trail, which is another reason why I prefer it to touchscreen voting machines. Even when touchscreens generate paper records, the records often put votes into unverifiable QR code’s & barcodes & many...
12/ ... experts consider them too unreliable to provide the basis for a reliable audit or recount (even if they didn’t use barcodes or QR codes). https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/elj.2019.0619
13/ But I do not want to suggest that we are conducting evidence-based elections with either in person voting or vote by mail. Because we aren’t. And we must demand that and change that ASAP.
