(Originally posted on 12/13/2020, update added 11/2/2024).
I really enjoyed DefCon 27 in Las Vegas in August 2019. As always, it was packed with interesting (and sometimes bizarre) people, sessions, and villages. If you’re a computer geek and have never attended, you should; it’s a blast, and it’s cheap ($300, cash only, because it’s also the most paranoid assemblage of over 20,000 nerds in the world.)
One of the interesting larger sessions at last year’s DefCon was about election security. With all the accusations about Russian hackers “attacking” the 2016 presidential election (some proved, some not), and given some news about the hackability of electronic voting machines over the past several years, there are very legitimate concerns.
So for the 2nd year in a row, this was a big session at DefCon, and once again this year there was a “Voting Village” chock full of electronic voting and aggregating devices, and a bunch of hackers looking to prove either their resilience to — or their utter failure to resist — cyber attacks of various stripes. It turns out that there was not a single machine in the Voting Village that was not hacked, cracked, or compromised, some with surprisingly little effort on the part of the “investigators”. (See https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/us-officials-hope-hackers-at-defcon-find-more-voting-machine-problems/ for more!)
One of the panelists was Ted Lieu (see https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/lawmakers-turn-hackers-defcon-election-security for his report on the topic.) Between him, Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA), there was a bit of cry-baby content re: Trump’s 2016 election, and a commitment to improve the state of “our election system”. That’s odd for an elected official serving in federal government to commit to, because there *is* no federal election system in America; elections administration in the U.S. is decentralized by design, with administrators at the state and local levels being responsible for running elections. They maintain voter registration records, conduct the actual elections, and count the ballots. As a result, election laws, procedures, and associated technologies vary widely between states, counties, and municipalities.
Even so, fine, these politicians want to do something to keep our elections secure. I can live with that. IF THAT IS WHAT THEY ACTUALLY INTEND TO DO.
Why would I question that? I’m always amused by the army of staffers and hangers-on that follow congresspeople and senators around to events like this. I once remember Orin Hatch holding court in a steak house at DFW, not letting any of the young people at his table get a word in edgewise. So I watched the front row or two, where it became apparent quickly which bright young people were associated with each of the presenters.
Then the next day (I believe it was the next day) when I went to the Voting Village myself, I noticed a couple of Ted Lieu’s people talking animatedly with conference attendees, and one in particular seemed to be getting contact information from hackers. I admit, I chuckled at this, thinking “They need young, edgy ‘experts’ to explain why Trump won in 2016, and why he’ll win again next year.”
I didn’t think much more about until after the election, when so many municipalities, counties, and states, refused to subject their election systems to transparent audits, including Harris County, TX, where I live and vote. Harris County is dominated by Houston, which for being in Texas is surprisingly left-wing, with a city government that is often embroiled in legal controversy, corruption, and regular displays of ineptness. I’m no fan of Democrat DA Kim Ogg, but even she could not overlook the fraudulent activity going on in Harris County (https://www.fox26houston.com/news/3-indicted-in-harris-county-for-alleged-roles-in-fraudulent-election-schemes).
If that was an isolated, unusual situation, I wouldn’t think too much about it. But similar stories of election officials being taken to court because of their refusal to submit their election results to audits popped up in many states and localities.
It was then I realized how I Completely Misread the Room at DefCon 27. Ted Lieu’s staffers were not collecting contact information so they could spin an election loss. I believe they were recruiting hacking talent in order to steal the 2020 election. The systemic refusals by Democrats, specifically, to be transparent about election results, seem to confirm my suspicions.
I wish I was wrong, but nothing in the information I can find tells me I’m wrong. I can’t prove it, but it’s a strong circumstantial case.
———————————–
Update: In 2024, we are hearing that if Trump loses this election, Republicans will deny the results of the election. That’s entirely possible. It is also reasonable, as election denial and mistrust of election results did not begin with the 2020 election of Joe Biden, which my post here is reflective of. Democrats engaged in rampant and unwarranted election denial when Trump was elected in 2016. Watch the video.
How I Completely Misread the Room at DefCon 27
(Originally posted on 12/13/2020, update added 11/2/2024).
I really enjoyed DefCon 27 in Las Vegas in August 2019. As always, it was packed with interesting (and sometimes bizarre) people, sessions, and villages. If you’re a computer geek and have never attended, you should; it’s a blast, and it’s cheap ($300, cash only, because it’s also the most paranoid assemblage of over 20,000 nerds in the world.)
One of the interesting larger sessions at last year’s DefCon was about election security. With all the accusations about Russian hackers “attacking” the 2016 presidential election (some proved, some not), and given some news about the hackability of electronic voting machines over the past several years, there are very legitimate concerns.
So for the 2nd year in a row, this was a big session at DefCon, and once again this year there was a “Voting Village” chock full of electronic voting and aggregating devices, and a bunch of hackers looking to prove either their resilience to — or their utter failure to resist — cyber attacks of various stripes. It turns out that there was not a single machine in the Voting Village that was not hacked, cracked, or compromised, some with surprisingly little effort on the part of the “investigators”. (See https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/us-officials-hope-hackers-at-defcon-find-more-voting-machine-problems/ for more!)
One of the panelists was Ted Lieu (see https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/lawmakers-turn-hackers-defcon-election-security for his report on the topic.) Between him, Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA), there was a bit of cry-baby content re: Trump’s 2016 election, and a commitment to improve the state of “our election system”. That’s odd for an elected official serving in federal government to commit to, because there *is* no federal election system in America; elections administration in the U.S. is decentralized by design, with administrators at the state and local levels being responsible for running elections. They maintain voter registration records, conduct the actual elections, and count the ballots. As a result, election laws, procedures, and associated technologies vary widely between states, counties, and municipalities.
Even so, fine, these politicians want to do something to keep our elections secure. I can live with that. IF THAT IS WHAT THEY ACTUALLY INTEND TO DO.
Why would I question that? I’m always amused by the army of staffers and hangers-on that follow congresspeople and senators around to events like this. I once remember Orin Hatch holding court in a steak house at DFW, not letting any of the young people at his table get a word in edgewise. So I watched the front row or two, where it became apparent quickly which bright young people were associated with each of the presenters.
Then the next day (I believe it was the next day) when I went to the Voting Village myself, I noticed a couple of Ted Lieu’s people talking animatedly with conference attendees, and one in particular seemed to be getting contact information from hackers. I admit, I chuckled at this, thinking “They need young, edgy ‘experts’ to explain why Trump won in 2016, and why he’ll win again next year.”
I didn’t think much more about until after the election, when so many municipalities, counties, and states, refused to subject their election systems to transparent audits, including Harris County, TX, where I live and vote. Harris County is dominated by Houston, which for being in Texas is surprisingly left-wing, with a city government that is often embroiled in legal controversy, corruption, and regular displays of ineptness. I’m no fan of Democrat DA Kim Ogg, but even she could not overlook the fraudulent activity going on in Harris County (https://www.fox26houston.com/news/3-indicted-in-harris-county-for-alleged-roles-in-fraudulent-election-schemes).
If that was an isolated, unusual situation, I wouldn’t think too much about it. But similar stories of election officials being taken to court because of their refusal to submit their election results to audits popped up in many states and localities.
It was then I realized how I Completely Misread the Room at DefCon 27. Ted Lieu’s staffers were not collecting contact information so they could spin an election loss. I believe they were recruiting hacking talent in order to steal the 2020 election. The systemic refusals by Democrats, specifically, to be transparent about election results, seem to confirm my suspicions.
I wish I was wrong, but nothing in the information I can find tells me I’m wrong. I can’t prove it, but it’s a strong circumstantial case.
———————————–
Update: In 2024, we are hearing that if Trump loses this election, Republicans will deny the results of the election. That’s entirely possible. It is also reasonable, as election denial and mistrust of election results did not begin with the 2020 election of Joe Biden, which my post here is reflective of. Democrats engaged in rampant and unwarranted election denial when Trump was elected in 2016. Watch the video.