Election systems expert demonstrates how easy it is to HACK voting machine USING ONLY A PEN
By Arsenio Toledo // Jan 23, 2024
An election technology expert successfully hacked into a Dominion Voting Systems electronic voting machine using only a pen.
This happened during a trial that began on Jan. 9 over a constitutional challenge to Georgia's election system. This trial is arguing for United States District Judge Amy Totenberg of the Northern District of Georgia to compel the state to stop using the Dominion Voting Systems touchscreen voting machines used by nearly every in-person voter statewide.
On Friday, Jan. 19, in the latest development of the case in a federal court in Atlanta, J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, demonstrated to Totenberg how he could hack into a Dominion voting machine to change the tabulation using only a pen. (Related: EXPLOSIVE: Halderman report in Georgia confirms VOTES CAN BE ALTERED through defective Dominion voting machines – Raffensperger hid this from public – Garland Favorito weighs in.)
In a theoretical election between Founding Father President George Washington and American Revolutionary War general-turned-traitor Benedict Arnold, Halderman was able to flip the winner and rig the machine to print out as many ballots as he wanted.
All Halderman needed was a pen to reach a button inside the touchscreen of the voting machines and a fake $10 voter card he had programmed or a $100 USB device that he plugged into a cord connected to the voting machine's printer. Once he obtained access, Halderman was able to easily rewrite the touchscreen's code."All of these things worry me – just how easy these machines would be to tamper with. It's so far from a secure system," testified Halderman. "There are all kinds of politically motivated actors that would be eager to affect results."
Halderman noted that he discovered these vulnerabilities after being given an election machine from Fulton County. He noted that a wrongdoer, hidden behind a privacy screen at a voting precinct, would almost certainly not be caught by election workers. Changing a machine's programming would take seconds or minutes and would cause "chaos" in a major election and make it difficult for voting precincts to determine which ballots are legitimate or not.
A potential criminal doesn't need to open up the core of a voting machine or remove any security seals to gain "superuser" access to a touchscreen and change its programming.
While Halderman did note that the vulnerabilities would only affect one voting machine at a time, he warned that many more votes could be changed if illicit elements within society were able to gain access to election management servers overseen by state and county election officials.
Trial in Georgia arguing for scrapping voting machines in favor of paper ballots
Halderman, as an expert witness for the plaintiffs, had written a lengthy report identifying the many vulnerabilities found in Georgia's electronic voting machines. The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has agreed with Halderman's report, warning jurisdictions to quickly mitigate all vulnerabilities they find with the use of Dominion's voting machines.
The ongoing trial in Georgia is arguing for most voters in the state to fill out hand-marked paper ballots and the touchscreen voting machines to only be used at polling places for people with disabilities. Reverting to paper ballots, the plaintiffs argue, would ensure voter intent is accurately captured and that meaningful audits can be done.
"My vote should be counted as cast. My particular point of view should be heard," said Jeff Schoenberg, a member of an election integrity organization in Georgia. He contended that Dominion's voting systems are exceptionally vulnerable to attack and have operational issues that could cost voters their right to cast a vote and have it accurately counted.
Georgia's touchscreen electronic voting machines print out ballots with a human-readable summary of voters' selections and a QR code that a scanner reads to count the votes. Schoenberg said there is no way for voters in the state to verify that the ballots accurately reflect their selections.
Robert McGuire, an attorney for the plaintiffs and representing the Coalition for Good Governance, an advocacy organization for election integrity, said Totenberg's decision is a difficult one but added that the current system is "profoundly insecure, unreliable and untrustworthy" and that if concerns with the Dominion machines are not addressed, "a disaster is waiting to happen in 2024."
Learn more about the ongoing battle against voting fraud and election integrity in the United States at VoteFraud.news.
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