DID the Russians Alter The Results of the Election?

[RandomAccess]

I've always been uncomfortable with the too-quick, too-pat response from our IC that no votes were changed, or even that they doubt any votes were changed. It always feels like they're simply trying to hide the truth -- either that we don't know, or don't know how much, or know but don't want to freak people out so they're less likely to vote (a concern I find unlikely), etc. IOW: their responses just never rang true.

Here's one thread from last October I happened across today and thought I'd share.
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Mike Farb (@mikefarb1 #unhackthevote) is one of the key researchers and activists on election integrity on Twitter.

Cambridge Analytics

They Targeted Twitter
They Targeted Facebook

They May Have Targeted Voter Registration Files!

Thread

Link to tweet

UNROLLED (You'll have to go to the Twitter thread to access the linked articles):

There was a Fascinating Medium Article that Caught Our Interest.
A Programmer From Cambridge Analytics and His Work Published on Github
Within Minutes Of Taking Screen Shots of This Page it was Removed!

The Python scripts there were very interesting.
One is for guessing the political interests of a Twitter user.
The other one initially seems rather innocent. It contains code to determine the latitude and longitude of a given address.
The crazy part about that script is in the comments.
The data the script is built to analyze contains fields called "voter_id" and "CongressionalDistrict". WTF?

This Would Be Exactly What You Would Use To Target And Hack a Voter Registration Database!!

Anyone Who Had Access to a Voter Registration Database Could Use This to Find the Latitude and Longitude of Any Address in the Database

It Would Also Be Easy to Find the Coordinates of All the Polling Places. Add Demographic and Historical Data, Mix to Taste.

With Very Little Work, These Scripts Could Be Used to Figure Out Where You Need Votes to Win, and Where They Need To Be.

With Access to Voter Registration Databases, You Could Even Move Those Voters to Where You Need Them To Be.

Move a Voter to a Different Precinct or County Two Things Happen.
They Can’t Vote
Their ID Could Then Be Used to Cast An Electronic Vote.

You Could Move Voters to Different Polling Stations. You Could Make Sure Their ID Doesn’t Match Their Registration.

We Know These Databases Were Targeted. These Attacks Weren't a Training Exercise. They Had a Goal and a Plan.

Weaponized Information Doesn't End at Microtargeting. It Starts There.
Why The Hell Did Cambridge Analytics Design These Scripts?
Who Provided them with Voter Registration Files.
Did They Actually Hack Voter Registration Files?
Did They Alter The Results of the Election?


There are links in the original article that do still point to these scripts.

[TheDebbieDee]

1. I believe the Russians changed actual vote totals in SOME states...

I believe the Russians have been meddling with the vote totals for many years and not just in Presidential Elections - the Russians have "elected" republicans to state-wide offices as well as governorships, congressional and senatorial offices...

Can I prove any of this? No!

But do you actually believe that the Russians accessed and meddled with the electronic, WIFI-accessible voter rolls in several states causing chaos on election day but couldn't figure out how to access the WIFI-accessible vote tabulation systems of these states and flip vote totals? Do you think that's a stretch?

[RandomAccess]

3. Uh --

I don't think the Russians have been doing it as long as it's been going on. I think that's a more recent development (2016)

You can look to the hackable, programmable electronic voting machines with no paper trail manufactured by Chrstian Dominionists and other Republican-leaning bad actors, along with Republicans in various states. It's been going on since 2000 when Florida scanning machines, not hanging chads, were the problem that ultimately gave us George Bush.

[poboy2]

10. Changing registration and data could work as well. Prevents people from

voting for improper info. Change this or that voter data, resulting in provisional ballot or not being able to vote.

[Hoyt]

2. I do not believe votes were changed, but there was a lot of junk going on before the election

that had an impact -- Ruskie inspired, domestic terrorist inspired, gerrymandering, people protesting primary results, etc. -- but I have seen no creditable evidence votes were changed, just speculation and excuses for losing.

Christ, just this past Tuesday we witnessed conspiracy leaning Democrats starting the vote tampering excuses right here when Connor Lamb starting losing his 16 point lead as super white wing precincts started reporting. In fact, Democratic whining about vote tampering, sounds just a nuts as GOPers saying the polls were rigged this past Tuesday.

Fact is, we win when we vote. We win when Democrats aren't bashing our candidate, protesting by not voting or even voting for the GOPer or some 3rd Party candidate, and the like.

We lost in November because we weren't ready to counter last minute stuff like Comey, lies on social media about Clinton, continued hatred for Clinton, etc. People who didn't vote early when their state allowed it, and decided we were good on Tuesday, stayed at home and cost us. As much as I love Obama and understand why he did not do it, he should have called for an investigation into Russian meddling leading up to the election.

[RandomAccess]

4. And see?

I think people who dismiss those speculative thoughts and inquiries out hand are the ones who sound nuts.

In fact, Democratic whining about vote tampering, sounds just a nuts as GOPers saying the polls were rigged this past Tuesday.

[Hoyt]

5. Fine. I prefer to concentrate on getting out the vote, like we did in Penn, Maryland, Alabama, and

preparing for pre-election lies and meddling by foreign countries and domestic deplorables, to making up excuses for losing in November, 2016. At this point, it is not going to change a thing.

[RandomAccess]

7. I prefer to do BOTH

The Russian meddling is a FACT. One of the best ways to guard against further encroachment and the certain change of votes is to switch to paper ballots. Happily, that also thwarts much of the election-rigging that goes on at the hands of Republicans.

As for "excuses" for 2016 -- try these on for size:

Hillary didn't lose because she was less POPULAR. She lost because of James Comey's letters and because of some even more important factors -- more important because they're not going away. They will be used against us in every election going forward, unless we can stop them.

The big problems are voter suppression, Russian meddling, and targeted voter propaganda through Twitter, Google, Facebook, and other forms of social media. There is no question that the Trump campaign, through Cambridge Analytica, did this -- and that the Russians did this. The only question is how much they conspired together in the propaganda campaign.

We need to figure out how to defend the democratic process from fake news and micro-targeted AI propaganda -- or lose our democracy. https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029576691

Here is how they stole the election, well this and KGB operatives V Crosscheck in action:
Trump victory margin in Michigan: 13,107
Michigan Crosscheck purge list: 449,922

Trump victory margin in Arizona: 85,257
Arizona Crosscheck purge list: 270,824

Trump victory margin in North Carolina: 177,008
North Carolina Crosscheck purge list: 589,393
http://www.gregpalast.com/election-stolen-heres/

23:00 6/25/2017
PALMER: Rigged election: Donald Trump won every surprise swing state by the same 1% margin
http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/rigged-election-donald-trump-won-every-surprise-swing-state-by-the-same-1-margin/118/

The most commonly posited explanation of Donald Trump’s shocking election victory was that every professional pollster in the nation – despite each working independently and using differing methodologies – somehow managed to overlook the same pockets of Trump voters in these states. If such pockets did exist, they would have existed in varying sizes in each of the four states, thus resulting in different sized wins in each.

Ask any statistician and they’ll tell you that a reasonable distribution of the results would have been Trump winning one of the states by one percent, won one of them by perhaps three percent, won one of them by two percent, lost one of them by one percent, or something along those lines. But instead the voting tallies looked startlingly different from any natural distribution. In fact they looked startlingly the same.

According to the New York Times, the voting results broke down like this: Trump won Florida by just over one percent of the vote. He also won Pennsylvania by just over one percent. He won Michigan by just under one percent. And he won Wisconsin by precisely one percent. That’s not how numbers tend to work in the real world.

On its own, this kind of suspiciously consistent numerical dispersion across the four states that decided the election would be something that could be written off as a mere fluke. But when you put it within the context of the numerous other ways in which the voting tallies make no mathematical sense, it points to the numbers having been rigged or altered.

MikeFarb @mikefarb1
#unhackthevote
Did Trump win Michigan? I don' think so.
Won by 10,704 but wait
75,355 Ballots Thrown Out
87 Machines Broke Down in Detrioit

Link to tweet

[Hoyt]

8. I said there was meddling, but that is not changing votes.

[edhopper]

6. So 3 million votes isn't enough

what's our handicap, since you admit it is not a fair playing field.
5 million votes, 10 million?
How many more votes do we need to overcome to ensure victory?

[StevieM]

9. I don't think they altered vote counts across America but I believe they changed votes in Michigan.

And I believe they did it in both the primary and the general election.

[ananda]

11. Our elections have been altered several times since Florida 2000.

So, yes.

[RandomAccess]

12. Yes -- but not by Russia

I think Russia's been involved only in the last 2-3 years, and I'm not totally convinced they did -- or didn't -- change votes.

Which is NOT to say votes weren't changed. We've had history of changed votes, as you point out, since 2000.