I knew the moment that I compared voter turnout in CO and found that primary voter turnout from 2016 to 2020 increased by over 140% despite population increasing less than 5% that something was off. Now, I'm digging into all the connections, but it's a lot.
The more I dig, the more shit bothers me.
E.g.
- Colorado uses ARLO software from VotingWorks to conduct Risk-Limiting Audits (a statistical sample-based audit approach that is theoretically efficient and accurate, but as Yogi Berra said, "In theory there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is...")
- VotingWorks is a non-profit; I immediately don't fucking trust them, but they also were incubated by CDT(https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/center-for-democracy-and-technology/) and funded by Google, FB, Apple, MS, and Soros' Open Society Foundation (https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/voting-works/)
- In fact, VotingWorks "product manager for Risk-limiting Audits" is Monica Childers (https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicacranechilders/), who was the "Product Consultant - Colorado Risk-limiting Audit Software" while she worked for Democracy Works, which is ALSO funded by Soros' Open Society Foundations, the Democracy Fund, Omidyar's network, etc. (https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/democracy-works/)
- VotingWorks Partners with Security Compass to secure Risk-Limiting Audit Software Arlo (https://voting.works/news/2020/11/votingworks-partners-with-security-compass-to-secure-risk-limiting-audit-software-arlo/)
- A bunch of the Security Compass staff are Iranian graduates of the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nima-dezhkam-88b499a/)(https://www.linkedin.com/in/ehsanforoughi/) with LI endorsements from other Sharif grads(https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-s-27a991b/)
- VotingWorks also helped push vote-by-mail
- CO is a member of the (again...) non-profit Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), the board members of which is a who's who of this fucking cabal, e.g. CO's Director, Division of Elections, Colorado SecState, Judd Choate (https://www.linkedin.com/in/judd-choate-068877a/), who's endorsed by Brian Hancock (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-hancock-29899148/) "Director, Infrastructure Policy and Product Development at Unisyn Voting Solutions," formerly member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), and one of the shills that signed off on the statement that this was "the most secure election in U.S. history"
- ERIC requires that member states provide "records from the state licensing/identification agency (typically, this is the state motor vehicle agency) for all residents with active records---not just registered voters" every 60 days; I think this is where they are getting the fodder for high-tech ballot stuffing/vote padding since this provides them lists of names/addresses, without restricting them to registered voters - if they have enough states, they also know who moved, but that doesn't keep them from using those names in the states the individuals left (https://ericstates.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ERIC-Membership-Summary-v20190603.pdf)
- BallotTrax (https://ballottrax.com/), a subsidiary of i3logix(https://i3logix.com/), also in Colorado (and also, curiously, listed as a "printing" company(), tracks the ballots that are printed, mailed, and received (and where they're received, based on USPS data - which would also, BTW, include optical scans of the exterior of mailed ballots, which means it includes optical scans of the fucking signatures) and when you combine that with, e.g. Runbeck (https://runbeck.net/) which also has an office (industrial space) in Colorado, and which uses the states' database and provides all the printed ballot/envelope data/images back to the states/their designated contractors, and which provides a "print on demand" system, Sentio (https://runbeck.net/election-solutions/ballot-printing-on-demand/sentio-on-demand-ballot-printing-system/), we're seeing the unassembled pieces of a puzzle
- I'm just getting started digging into Pro V&V, in Huntsville, that supposedly certifies the voting systems (and SLI Compliance, in Colorado, that does the same, with only two of 13 employees on LI even showing that they studied computer science) - again, endorsed by fucking Hancock, and owned by Gaming Labs International (GLI, LLC), which has its Colorado headquarters at the same street address as SLI)
All of these companies' employees, BTW, donate almost exclusively to ActBlue, Biden, Warren, etc, though some hide it (e.g. Monica Childers donated and the FEC log says she said she was unemployed, but her LI profile said she was employed by Democracy Works in that same timeframe).
Anyway, could use some help.
Speed, mostly. Also, pen and paper still has the question of trust. That's why we have poll watchers, is because you can't trust the tallyers. We've got them changing votes on video this election.
But is there really any speed benefit when we have to go back and count them by hand to know they didn't cheat? Even as simple as it is now a lot of people have no clue how these machines work, and even if you explained every detail a lot would still be completely lost. I don't think the solution is to obfiscate it even more and have the select few people who truly understand blockchain in some authoritative postion for elections, I think we are much better having everything out wide in the open, and I don't think you can get much better than pen and paper for being in the open.
And having an electronic system that is truly secure inside and out wouldn't be nearly as quick and effecient as the prcoess is now, because at the end of the day you have to balance security with convinience. And I'm VERY doubtful somthing that is actually fully secure and anonymous would be any faster than pen and paper.
There's still one thing that you can do with electronic voting to make it more secure than pen and paper: proof of vote.
You give each voter a unique private key that nobody else knows. That key is used to sign their vote, which produces a unique public and private keypair. The private key ties directly to the vote (so you can identify your specific vote out of millions) and the public key indicates how the vote was cast.
By doing this, a voter can then go back into the system, track down their individual vote, and see how it was recorded, without having to reveal any information about how they voted. This is already possible by adding a reciept to the ballots which you can take home with you, kind of like how raffle tickets work. What you can't do currently, which this system would allow, is to say "Hey, my vote wasn't cast the way I said it was, and I can prove it." And then you use your private key to sign your vote again, and if the public key comes back different from the recorded one, then your vote was changed.
That works nicely in theory, but somone still needs to mail all those keys out and ultimately you lose anonimity, or have a "machine" do it where you're back to square one. We're seeing how pretty much every single gov branch and ABC agency comprimised, so who do we trust with this highly secretive task?
And especially once you start talking about tracking multiple keys, there are going to be a lot of average Joes who don't understand the significance of one or the other, and could very easily leak or discard their keys throwing anonimity out the window. Any system you make has to be idiot-proof, because people will be idiots.
Instead, it's just a much better idea to have a dirt simple method that ANYONE can understand and oversee. Still not perfdct, but get proper voter ID laws in place and most of the issues go away.
Don't forget, this isn't your average software, it esentially controls the US, the second any software gets introduced, there will be countless nations pouring billions if not trillions into cracking it.