Gaslighting Galore!

The New York Times continues its disinformation campaign on election security

Kill Chain

Let’s watch a clip from the documentary film Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America’s Elections.

I have this clip, because when we started the SMART Elections YouTube channel in 2020, one of the first things we did was interview Russ Michaels, one of the directors of Kill Chain, and we showed this clip. You can watch the full film on Max.

In the clip, a hacker easily penetrates a state elections’ website, remotely from India, and gains access to the administrator’s panel, where he has the ability to change all of the state’s election results.

He did not need the passwords. He ran a program that bypassed the passwords.

The film is from HBO, by filmmakers Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels, and Sarah Teale. It’s not fiction. It’s a documentary. The clip features security expert Harri Hursti (Co-founder of DEF CON Voting Village) and reporter Nathanial Herz, along with the hacker named CyberZeist.

New York Times Disinformation Campaign

Yesterday, the New York Times ran another of their articles about how people who don’t trust election results are foolish and deluded.

The purpose of these articles, in my opinion, is not to reassure you that the election results are accurate, but to silence and shame you if you don’t completely trust the results of the election.

I would be more assured by their reassurances, if they were factually accurate. However, as we point out in X and Blue Sky threads (which you are encouraged to share) these New York Times articles, written by two of their disinformation correspondents, contain disinformation.

The NY Times articles claims that,

“All electronic voting machines are subject to audits that follow standards set by the United States Election Assistance Commission [EAC].”

The New York Times article is saying “all.”

All electronic voting machines are subject to audits that follow standards set by the EAC.

And it links to a page on the EAC website that says,

“HAVA mandates that EAC accredit voting system test laboratories and certify voting equipment.”

The next sentence on that same page continues:

“Participation by states in EAC's certification program is voluntary.”

That’s right. It’s voluntary for states to use the federal Election Assistance Commission’s standards for their voting machines.

So when the Times says

“All electronic voting machines are subject to audits that follow standards set by the EAC.”

The New York Times is saying that states must use the EAC standards. All voting machines are subject to means must - they must use the EAC standards.

But that is factually incorrect because the EAC standards are voluntary and states can use them or not, as they choose. And many states choose not to.

Is that clear? The article from the New York Times about disinformation is spreading disinformation.

Not All U.S. Voting Machines Are Certified by the EAC

In the social media threads (linked above) we provide details about a letter from Free Speech for People, that revealed how voting machines that were not certified by the EAC, were being advertised by the vendor, ES&S, as being EAC-certified. Susan Greenhalgh, one of the most knowledgable voting machine experts in the country was a key part of that lawsuit and it proved that there are many voting machines in use that are not EAC certified.

From the Free Speech for People website:

“ES&S has sold its voting machines with wireless modems to States across the country including Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin.”

(continued from the Free Speech for People website) “The wireless modems are used to transmit unofficial election results from the polling places to the county headquarters via the Internet, exposing the voting devices to remote attackers anywhere in the world. ES&S has also frequently and inaccurately claimed that its machines are never connected to the internet.”

The EAC (the Election Assistance Commission) then responded to Free Speech for People that, yes, in fact the voting machine vendor ES&S had been lying about those voting machines being EAC-certified.

(continued from the Free Speech for People website) “EAC wrote a letter to ES&S on March 20, 2020 … setting forth corrective actions that ES&S was required to take within 15 days of receipt of the letter.”

You might think the corrective action would be to stop selling voting machines that are connected to the Internet. But the corrective action was just to stop saying that those Internet-connected voting machines are EAC-certified.

The voting machines are still in use, and many of them are still connected to the Internet.

We Cannot Solve What We Cannot Name

Does any of this matter?

Does it matter that the voting machine vendors lie and say the machines are certified, when they’re not? Yes, it matters.

Does it matter that the New York Times, the most prestigious and supposedly fact-based media outlet in the country, possibly the world, then parrots those same lies and says that all the machines are certified, when they’re not? Yes, it matters.

Does it matter that you, a U.S. voter are made to feel like you’re crazy and paranoid because you think that maybe there’s a problem?

Yes, it matters.

All of this misdirection is to ensure that you don’t ask questions, don’t learn the answers and don’t ask for changes. Just keep trusting. Just keep voting.

We’re not saying to stop voting. Voting also matters. But we must have confidence that our votes are counted accurately.

If we’re going to enact change—and I hope that we are—we have to ask these questions, and learn the answers and demand different solutions.

Because it’s going to be a lot of work to enact different solutions, and if people don’t know there’s a problem, they’re not going to put in the work.

Sandy Summers, who is featured in the New York Times article sent me a note reminding me about the path to social change. It is apparently misattributed to Gandhi, but was perhaps first said by union activist Nicholas Klein:

“First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”

We have a lot more to do to fully investigate what happened in the 2024 election, and to lay the groundwork for improved U.S. elections long term. If you find our work valuable, please subscribe and consider making a tax-deductible donation as well.

Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.

~ Henry David Thoreau

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