Thieves Nab Nashville Voter Rolls

[NashVegas]

Source: Tennessean

Thieves broke in to the Davidson County Election Commission offices over the Christmas holiday and made off with computers containing the names and identifying information of every voter in Nashville.

The missing laptop contained names, addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of about 337,000 voters' Social Security numbers. It's the same information that candidates buy from the county when they're putting together mailing lists, said county Election Administrator Ray Barrett.

The election offices are in the old Howard School Building at 800 Second Ave. S., which also houses several other county offices. Barrett said the culprit or culprits also broke into nearby offices, including Metro Water Services. There is no estimate yet of the cost of the damage and stolen equipment, he said.

Security workers were on duty over the holiday, but the theft went undetected until the day after Christmas, when Barrett unlocked the office at 7:30 a.m. and found a broken window and missing office equipment — including laptops, a cell phone and a brand new $3,000 computer router.

Read more: http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071228/NEWS0202/712280408

---

Wow. Spread this one far and wide, please pressure Nashville PD and TBI to investigate this one.

[meegbear]

1. What is this hip new trend to store personal info on others on laptops?

All office personnel involved with that should be fired, regardless of what information was taken.

[Demeter]

2. The Unintended Consequence of the Paperless Office

[NashVegas]

20. The Paperless Office Is a Techie's Utopian Mistake

As is so much of tech Utopia.

[Demeter]

21. I Resemble That Remark!

Make the world safe for Techies---jail all the power-crazed psychopaths and narcissists!

[NashVegas]

22. Heheh

I work with audio and broadcast engineers; their job is making things work. My job is making things go. If that makes me a narcissistic psycho, so be it :P

[tbyg52]

25. I resemble that remark as well.

Techies know about the need for security and also PAPER BALLOTS!

[mainegreen]

3. Have these people never heard of databases?

Did someone hire Cousin Bob the drooling Idiot as their IT Manager?

[MaineDem]

4. Why do they have SS numbers?

Voting lists are not private so I have no issue with data being "stolen" other than the SSNs. They should never be required for a voting list!

[bemildred]

5. Yeah. Seems like all the time I have some droid on the phone asking

for the last 4 digits of my SSN to "verify my identity", and they got it on a public list.

[DeSwiss]

6. Well, I suppose now....

...Nashville will go Repuke! :sarcasm:

So they got my name and address and last four digits of my social. On one damned laptop. While rent-a-cops from WackenNuts snoozed nearby no doubt. Peachy. I'll bet those computers are on the streets by now. MPD and TBI are pretty good, and they may catch the thieves because they usually already have a pretty good idea of who they are. But the laptops I bet are long gone. Damn.

Someone's ass should be in a sling for this....

K&R

[Fly by night]

8. It will be easy enough to reduce any Dem's margin in Nashville to influence any statewide races.

Watch "UNCOUNTED: The New Math of American Elections" -- in particular, the section on Clint Curtis.

Everything about TN's elections is suspect. In 2006, our Corker/Ford Senatorial race showed the greatest discrepencies between exit polls and the "reported" vote of any race in the country. (Corker, who won by a little over 1%, was also the only new Repuke Senator elected anywhere in the country that year.)

Also, the Davidson County Election Commission still reports more votes cast for President in 2004 than there were voters who voted. And they still cannot explain that.

Ray Barrett is dumb as dirt.

[DeSwiss]

13. Years ago....

...I worked in the Howard School Office building directly across from the Election Commission.

- I wasn't impressed back then either....

[Fly by night]

7. I wonder how many PEBs were stolen also?

You know, those "personal electronic ballots" that could be used in insert a virus into a single DRE, resulting in the corruption of the entire county's votes.

BTW, Crisco, you should look at the 2004 Presidential election results for Davisdon County. The Davidson County Election Commission still reports more votes cast for President than total voters who showed up to vote. Voting machine problems are nothing new in Nashville.

It's time for another Battle of Athens (TN), IM(NS)HO.

[Time for change]

9. This is how the Republicans stole Ohio in 2004

They broke into Democratic headquarters in at least two counties that we know of and stole the computers which identified Democratic voters. They then used the lists to do a selective and massive purge of Democratic voters in those coutnies. Mark Crispin Miller discusses this in detail in "Fooled Again".

[mod mom]

14. Lucas County (Home of convicted bu$h pioneer Tom Noe) occurred in Oct 2004:

Article published Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Lucas County Democratic headquarters burglarized

BLADE STAFF

The Lucas County Democratic Headquarters was burglarized overnight, and three computers, including the party’s main system, were stolen.

The computers contained highly sensitive information, including the party’s financial information, names and personal phone numbers of hundreds of party members, candidates, and volunteers.

The computers also stored e-mails from candidates that included discussion about campaign strategy.
A second computer, belonging to an attorney-volunteer working to ensure voters’ rights, also was taken, officials said. The headquarters on 1817 Madison Avenue does have an alarm system that volunteers believed they set late Monday when they left.



-snip

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041012/NEWS03/41012016

State Party HQ occurred in 2005 through an open window into State Chair Denny White's office.

Just to clarify :hi:

[mod mom]

15. This is weird....

The break-in into State Party Headquarters wasn't reported all over the state (I never found it in the Cols Dispatch-city where it occurred) but appeared in the Toledo Blade. I did an archive search to find the article but it didn't appear, instead I found it at another site:

Watergate Again? Another break-in, more computers stolen at Democratic Headquarters in Ohio
by STEVE EDER and JAMES DREW The Toledo Blade
Entered into the database on Sunday, July 03rd, 2005 @ 14:51:23 MST




COLUMBUS - Thieves targeted the Ohio Democratic Party Headquarters this week, stealing a computer and a high-tech communications gadget belonging to party chairman Denny White.

Police said yesterday one or more burglars appeared to have climbed a wall Monday and crawled through an unlocked second-story window overnight at the party headquarters about three blocks from the Statehouse.

The break-in occurs at a time when the Ohio Republican Party is threatened by one of the largest scandals to hit the state’s government in decades.

Some Democrats also say the break-in is eerily similar to a burglary at the Lucas County Democratic Party Headquarters last fall, in which three computers were stolen.

-snip

http://www.lookingglassnews.org/printerfriendly.php?storyid=1188

[Time for change]

23. Thanks

In any event it was an outrage, perpetrated by Kenneth Blackwell, probably with the assistance of the Bush administration, and that and other similar illegal voter purges probably cost Kerry the election.
:hi:

[Triana]

10. What the *&$*#^$@%@^!~ was this stuff DOING on a laptop?

An UNSECURED laptop no doubt. Is it encrypted, at least? Probably not.

My Bro used to work at a BOE and I gotta tell ya the stuff he saw (he was a DBA) would scare the bejeesus out of you. BOE people are NOT techies. In fact they really have little interest in it, or in security, apparently. It's no wonder we have our elections stolen.

[sasquatch]

11. "pressure Nashville PD and TBI to investigate"

Drag in Interpol as well.

[sasquatch]

12. Why does this reek of Karl Rove?

x(

[fascisthunter]

16. GOP Extremists Once Again!!! (nt)

[MaineDem]

17. Other than the Social Security Numbers why is this a voter problem?

Aren't voter lists public information in Tennessee?

Edited to add: Let me say, it's a crime of course. And I don't understand why part of the SSN is on the voter list. But if the info is all public why would someone steal the laptop to get the list? More than likely it's just a theft.

[NashVegas]

18. People On the Lists Can Be Targeted

Either for direct-mailings (I'd guess that it would be more likely 3rd parties, as candidates can purchase the lists), harrassment (think of those 3am robo-calls), or vote-challenging at the polls.

[NashVegas]

19. Update:

WKRN is now reporting the information contained full social security numbers.

Great ...

[DeSwiss]

24. And this as well....

From the latest http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071229/NEWS0202/712290372">Tennessean Update:

The theft should not cause any problems for Nashvillians casting ballots in the upcoming presidential primary. Early voting begins Jan. 16.

Second break-in reported

It wasn't the only break-in of a public building over the holiday. Several laptop computers and a desktop computer were stolen from the state Safety Department's information technology building in south Nashville on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

The agency issues Tennesseans handgun-carry permits, and in the past it has overseen the unit that issues drivers' licenses. However, Safety Department officials said they believe personal information was not compromised, because nearly all of the computers were taken from a repair office and their memories are believed to be blank.

Yeah right. We're all safe and snug now. Well Mayor Dean, now you have a mission. Closing (and locking) the door now that the horse has gotten out of the barn. Sheesh!!!

:mad: