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In emergency meeting, Virginia elections board votes to scrap all touch-screen voting machines
Richmond Times-Dispatch ^ | September 8, 2017 | Graham Moomaw

Posted on 09/09/2017 5:29:26 AM PDT by Perseverando

The Virginia State Board of Elections voted Friday to discontinue use of all touch-screen voting machines throughout the state because of potential security vulnerabilities, forcing 22 cities and counties to scramble to find new equipment just weeks before voting begins for the November gubernatorial election.

Behind closed doors at an emergency meeting in Richmond on Friday afternoon, the board heard about specific vulnerabilities identified after a cybersecurity conference this summer in Las Vegas, where hackers showed they could break into voting machines with relative ease.

After the July Defcon conference, Virginia’s Department of Elections asked the state’s IT agency to review the security of touch screens still in use in the state. Details of that review were kept confidential, but they caused the elections board to speed up the end of touch screens, which were already scheduled to be phased out of Virginia elections by 2020.

Most Virginia localities — including the city of Richmond and Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover counties — have already transitioned to optical-scan systems, in which voters fill out bubbles on a paper ballot that is fed into a scanner.

In a memo on touch-screen machines prepared for the board, the Department of Elections said the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, or VITA, found that “each device analyzed exhibited material risks to the integrity or availability of the election process.”

The password for a touch-screen machine used in Virginia was publicized after the July hacking conference, the memo said, and one report indicated that one vendor with machines in Virginia uses a single password for all machines. The memo also notes that, unlike optical systems, touch screens leave no paper trail that can be used in post-election audits.

Before last year’s presidential election, Virginia officials stressed that all touch-screen machines were secure because they aren’t connected to

(Excerpt) Read more at richmond.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Politics/Elections; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: defcon; electionfraud; hacking; mcauliffe; truethevote; votefraud; votingmachines
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Ummmm. Just in time for this November's gubernatorial election.

After 4 years of 'rat control of Virginia's governor, lt. governor and attorney general offices, and with "their team" in power, I'm betting that any new voting machines will be even more susceptible to hacking, but just by the 'rat party,

If there's a way to steal an election, the 'rats will figure it out.

1 posted on 09/09/2017 5:29:26 AM PDT by Perseverando
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To: Perseverando

The hackers in Vegas had physical access to the systems. Almost any system can be hacked once you have physical access.


2 posted on 09/09/2017 5:31:16 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Not my circus. Not my monkeys.)
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To: mad_as_he$$

Forgot to mention that all 100 seats in the House of Delegates will be voted on in November.


3 posted on 09/09/2017 5:33:23 AM PDT by Perseverando (For Progressives, Islamonazis & other Totalitarians: It's all about PEOPLE CONTROL!)
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To: Perseverando

If you can’t read English on a piece of paper and make a mark next to a name, you have no business voting ... citizen or not.


4 posted on 09/09/2017 5:36:00 AM PDT by knarf (thank you)
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To: mad_as_he$$

Too bad there isn’t a system in place to allow a “voter” to go back sometime later than when casting their vote and do an audit of their previously cast vote.


5 posted on 09/09/2017 5:36:03 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: mad_as_he$$

Converting from non-hackable systems to systems that can.be controlled remotely is sort of the Establishment’s plans to perpetuate their rule. That’s a fact.


6 posted on 09/09/2017 5:36:36 AM PDT by Shady (We WON the Battle, Now let's WIN THE WAR!!!!)
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To: Perseverando

Gonna smash them with a hammer...after you bleach bit them?


7 posted on 09/09/2017 5:40:16 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Perseverando
What a revelation!! Was the item placed on the agenda by the governor's team or was it sponsored by board members outside the northern VA metro area? Just another precious group of concerned citizens.... (eye's roll) .
...board heard about specific vulnerabilities identified after a cybersecurity conference this summer in Las Vegas, where hackers showed they could break into voting machines with relative ease...
8 posted on 09/09/2017 5:48:29 AM PDT by ptsal ( Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - M. Twain)
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To: Shady

The trick is in the “who” of counts the votes.

Seems like one of the old Soviets had a meme on that topic.


9 posted on 09/09/2017 5:50:34 AM PDT by ptsal ( Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - M. Twain)
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To: Perseverando

I have to admit that voting in Florida, we fill in ballot and put it in the scanner and no action. Just a thank you. No proof it went through or counted or anything. Not the greatest feeling.


10 posted on 09/09/2017 5:52:11 AM PDT by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016)
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To: Perseverando

Here’s the way I see it. Electronic voting machines are easier to monitor for illegal activity. Paper ballots are easy to counterfeit.

All this talk about electronic machines is probably bunk. They can’t be manipulated hence the projection of mistrust.


11 posted on 09/09/2017 6:04:03 AM PDT by PJammers (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: knarf

A couple of elections ago when MD had touch screen voting machines, I assisted my Grandmother in voting. She had troubles with the voting machine registering her vote properly due to the way the touch timer was set. Her dexterity is significantly lower than it was at 30, she is well past 90 years old.


12 posted on 09/09/2017 6:12:47 AM PDT by Fraxinus (My opinion, worth what you paid.)
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To: Perseverando

Good. Mark-sense is the only auditable, reliable method to use.


13 posted on 09/09/2017 6:13:21 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (#DeplorableMe #BitterClinger #HillNO! #cishet #MyPresident #MAGA #Winning #covfefe)
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To: DaveA37

Actually there is, or can be.

Blockchain technology can make safe, verifiable record of anything in a totally unhackable and verifiable way that is totally decentralized.

Or we could just change to a system where your name is on the ballet and recorded, but then everyone would know how you vote, which opens the door to intimidation.


14 posted on 09/09/2017 6:16:12 AM PDT by Wildbill22 ( They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards- Gen Creighton William Abramsp)
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To: knarf
If you can’t read English on a piece of paper and make a mark next to a name, you have no business voting ... citizen or not.

In my district (Virginina's 8th), we do just that. We mark our choice on a paper ballot.

15 posted on 09/09/2017 6:18:14 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (RuPaul and Yertle - our illustrious Republican leaders up the Hill - God help us!)
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To: Wildbill22

Or how about when you vote your ballet is given a verification number and you keep the receipt and can verify your vote, via the internet and thus keep anonymity?


16 posted on 09/09/2017 6:19:34 AM PDT by Wildbill22 ( They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards- Gen Creighton William Abramsp)
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To: DaveA37
Too bad there isn’t a system in place to allow a “voter” to go back sometime later than when casting their vote and do an audit of their previously cast vote.

Hi, Señor, uh, Sir (yeah, sir) - I'm, uh [checks paper] COBOL2Java. I'd like to double-check my vote, uh, y'know, to make sure it was registered correctly...


17 posted on 09/09/2017 6:24:43 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (RuPaul and Yertle - our illustrious Republican leaders up the Hill - God help us!)
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To: Perseverando

Of course manufacturers would put the same password on every machine — It’s known as the “factory default”. It’s the user’s responsibility to change it to their own. Don’t blame the manufacturer for the incompetence of election officials.


18 posted on 09/09/2017 6:28:45 AM PDT by Bob (Damn, the democrats haven't been this upset since Republicans freed their slaves.)
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To: Perseverando

Doesn’t matter.

Hacking is not a problem in Virginia.

The Democrats don’t need to hack to win. They have registered over 200,000 illegal aliens to vote (always democrat) with the help of the SEIU, La Raza, etc., over the last ten years.

With democrats in control of the state offices of governor and attorney general, and the major population areas of Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Norfolk, and a compliant Republican legislature, nothing is ever done to stop the fraud.

Virginia has already been identified by several recent studies as one of the worst vote fraud states.

Virginia was once one of the most solid red states in America.
Now it is now solidly blue, thanks to RINOs and illegal alien and green card non-citizen voting (Indians, Middle Eastern, Asian).


19 posted on 09/09/2017 6:29:00 AM PDT by oldbill
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To: Perseverando
Not knowing the security of the machines being replaced, Illinois (where I live..) uses the optical scanning system where we fill in ovals using black ink pens for the "candidates" we're allegedly voting for.

I say "allegedly" because it's just as easy to re-program the optical scanning machine to count votes that were cast by filling in one oval as counting for another candidate.

Just as easy to make it count every third or fourth vote for example, cast for Candidate A as being for Candidate B.

That is how elections are stolen here.

The only "difference" is there's a paper trail that no one ever references to dispute the results of the election. It "costs too much" to do that of course.

20 posted on 09/09/2017 6:31:43 AM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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