Breaking: Voting equipment stolen days before Georgia special election

[MelissaB]

BREAKING on Channel 2 Action News at 6 -- Voting equipment stolen days before Georgia special election

Equipment stolen days before special election; Sec. of State: 'Unacceptable'
by: Ross Cavitt Updated: Apr 17, 2017 - 7:11 PM

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - Channel 2 Action News has learned that critical voting machines were stolen just days before polls will open for a special election.

State officials are investigating after equipment was taken from a Cobb County precinct manager’s vehicle. According to Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the equipment was stolen on Saturday evening while the vehicle was parked at the Kroger on Canton Road.

Kemp’s office says Cobb County Elections waited two days to tell his office about the theft of the machines.

The four so-called ExpressPoll machines were the computers poll workers used to check-in voters, and check those off who cast ballots.

“It’s very shocking, especially with the climate we have of voter fraud out there,” one Georgia voter told Channel 2’s Ross Cavitt.

Cobb County Elections Director Janine Eveler said the stolen machines cannot be used to fraudulently vote in Tuesday’s election. Eveler said the machines have voter information on them, but that information is “hard to access.”

More: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/cobb-county/voting-equipment-stolen-days-before-special-election-sec-of-state-unacceptable/513453377

[elleng]

1. Anyone surprised?

[cstanleytech]

24. With Repugnants involved not much surprises me these days. nt

[eleny]

2. Fine - Delay the election, print paper ballots and get eyeballs to count them

It's a no brainer.

[lastlib]

44. THIS!

Absolutely!!

NO HACKING!!

[slumcamper]

46. Yep. No brainer.

Should be a "Plan B" fair election law: when the process or mechanism is compromised, auto-resort to paper ballots.

Of course Repugs would resist such an initiative. But where in power, Democrats need to pass such laws.

[panader0]

3. This kind of shit reinforces the need for true vote counts.

Until the fraud is gone who will know the truth?
It doesn't seem like it would be so hard to guarantee a real count.

[Amaryllis]

22. It isn't hard at all to guarantee a real count but that is not their goal. R goal is always to

suppress and sabotage the "real" vote.

[lastlib]

45. 'Rigging' starts with an 'R'.......!!

They're the "Rig-publikan party."

[Chasstev365]

4. Third FUCKING World!

This is just getting absurd as to how blantant the GOP cheats.

[MelissaB]

18. Yes, it is!

Shame, shame, shame.

[MedusaX]

5. Extremely hard to access the voter info.....

Especially if the machines are missing...
It will be extremely difficult to access the info. necessary to check in voters & keep track of who has cast ballots....

Sounds like a new innovative form of Voter Suppression......

[ananda]

6. Ok

An elections official with voting machines in his vehicle,
unsecured, parks and leaves them at a Kroger???

Again... words fail.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. Then waited two days to report the theft

[Achilleaze]

11. Waits two days to let officials know

Last edited Mon Apr 17, 2017, 10:27 PM - Edit history (1)

How Republican is that?

[OldRedneck]

31. This is not unusual.

I'm on the electoral board of a small, rural Virginia county. We have six polling places, 9,000 registered voters. Unlike the big counties with 750,000 registered voters, we do not have a huge staff with lift-gate trucks to haul voting equipment to polling places, set it up, test it, tear it down, return it to storage.

Instead, we three board members (ages 72, 70, and 67) spend two days about a week before the election running logic and accuracy tests on all voting machines after which we seal them and lock them back in the vault.

Our precinct chiefs (average age 67; five of six are female) come to the registrar's office on Monday, pick up ballots, voting machines, laptops with database of registered voters installed, office supplies, etc., etc., etc. A couple of volunteer firefighters help the chiefs haul this stuff out to their cars. The chiefs then take everything home with them. They show up at the polling places at 5:00 AM, haul everything out of their cars, set it up, run the election at their precinct.

At the end of the day, after they verify vote counts, account for ballots, seal the machines, etc., they bring it all back to the registrar's office, usually around 10:00 PM.

[DeminPennswoods]

50. Agree

In Philadelphia, all the election material for a ward was located at a nearby firestation. Everything was boxed up for each individual precinct and lined up numerically. There was an election board official on hand with a check off sheet to be signed as the cognizant election judge picked up the material. Then the judge took his/her box, put in their car and left. I usually brought my stuff into the house to get everything arranged and avoid having to do it an hour before the poll opened. We had poll books of voters printed and cards for each voter to be pulled out when that voter voted.

The voting machines were delivered to the polls the night before election day, tested then sealed by the board of elections.

[FakeNoose]

33. Yeah he probably knows where the machines are too

They'll be returned after they've be doctored up, good as new.

[Nevernose]

7. "Waited two days..."

"To tell his office?

And WTF were these machines doing in the backseat, at the Kroger's, on a Saturday night? Why was he driving around with these in the first place?

[Phoenix61]

8. That just doesn't even make sense

Why were they in the car, and on Saturday? Taking them home for the weekend? Somebody's got some explaining to do.

[Amaryllis]

19. Making sense is completely unrelated to R behavior, unless you look at it from the point of .

view of how much can they mess up people's votes counting.

[Fast Walker 52]

10. WTF???

[Mr. Ected]

12. Georgia Resistance: Time to ROAR

This shit can't fly.

We need to stomp on the brakes NOW.

This is FRAUD. It is BLATANT. It is OBSCENE.

Is this America? Is this freaking America?

[Chasstev365]

21. No Worries! I'm sure the Democrats are working on a strongly worded letter.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. It's election fraud, not voter fraud. When voter rolls are being messed with, it's

the election that might be dubious.

[Amaryllis]

20. Thank you. Voter fraud, as you clearly understand, is a myth invented by Rs to use as a reason to

suppress the vote. So they can commit election fraud.

[drray23]

15. i can see many reasons why someone would want to steal these machines

I dont think it was a random event. Once you have these, you can reverse engineer everything in it and study how to attack them. That information is gold for hackers who wish to steal more elections.

[struggle4progress]

16. Psst! Wanna buy some voting machines? They're like new! Hardly been used!

These things are usually hard to get but I made a smart trade. I'll give you a good deal on them cuz I gotta clear out my warehouse to make room for the bridge I just bought. And you look, y'know, like someone who might want to keep a few on hand, just in case

[MelissaB]

17. I saw this posted by Louise Mensch first on twitter.

Here are a few of her tweets.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[wiggs]

23. Holy Crap!! nt

[OldRedneck]

25. Sounds as thought these are NOT "voting machines"

Sounds as though these were laptop computers loaded with an electronic pollbook. Read this from the article:
"The four so-called ExpressPoll machines were the computers poll workers used to check-in voters, and check those off who cast ballots. "

A voter enters the polling place, comes up to the table and presents ID. The poll worker then enters the voter's name into the laptop (in this case, the ExpressPoll). If the voter is registered, their name appears, poll worker verifies the name on ID matches name on computer, checks off the voter as having voted, sends the voter on to pick up a ballot.

These are NOT machines by which votes are cast or counted.

[Honeycombe8]

35. Can they be used to delete registered voter names? So the votes won't be counted?

Or...so they can say 1,000 people tried to "illegally vote!"

[dsc]

49. I very highly doubt that

There should be read only files of the data base on those computers and not the data base itself.

[lostnfound]

55. "Checks off the voter as having voted"

That would not be read-only.

[Honeycombe8]

58. That's what I was wondering. nt

[Cattledog]

38. Correct NOT voting machines.

They have been rendered useless...in other words remotely deactivated and can'tcommunicate with any election equipment. But still unnerving..

[herding cats]

53. After reading the article I agree.

This was more, much more than just voting machines.

[C Moon]

26. Oh yes, it's "VERY SHOCKING." Bull shit. It is now 100% evident that THIS is the only

the GOP is able to win. CHEATING AND LYING!!

[Doitnow]

27. Not voter fraud----ELECTION fraud!!! Call it like it is.

[tazkcmo]

28. Really?

In the car????????? These people are idiots.

[zentrum]

29. Democrats need to raise

Last edited Mon Apr 17, 2017, 09:55 PM - Edit history (1)

...Holy Hell about this.

Get Jimmy Carter (surrogate, since he's sick) down there to investigate. Invite in the UN election watchers. Make it a national story.

[L. Coyote]

30. Voting machines unattended in a car at a mall. And we are supposed to believe they were stolen?

Sounds more like they were stolen before they got to the car!

WTF are voting machines doing in an election worker's car days before an election?

[Cattledog]

37. These weren't voting machines.

They were laptops used to check voters in and see if they are registered.

[L. Coyote]

40. Semantics.

[mythology]

43. No, these are significantly different

It's like saying there's difference between my laptop and my microwave. Two completely different things with two completely different functions.

[volstork]

32. Two words:

PAPER BALLOTS.

oh, and: F trump

[brer cat]

36. You are correct.

GA is using old Diebold machines with NO paper trail.

[LenaBaby61]

54. GA is using old Diebold machines with NO paper trail.

The same Diebold machines from Ohio used in 2004 when Ken Blackwell was ...

Never mind

[Honeycombe8]

34. What the hell was he doing at Kroger w/machines that had voter info on them?

There needs to be a rule against that in the future. How STUPID!

[Initech]

39. Unacceptable? This is terrifying!!!

[Crash2Parties]

41. Now how're they going to connect to crosscheck???

btw, California is huge. We use paper printout voter rolls. Problem free.

[Takket]

42. everyone read post 25...

[jmowreader]

47. Thinking out loud here...

These are electronic pollbooks. A very quick way of rigging the vote WITHOUT tampering with the election software or any of the databases is to reduce the number of pollbooks available (which will make check-in take longer) in areas expected to lean Democratic, while making sure there are sufficient of them to handle the election-day crowds in areas expected to lean Republican.

[Ilsa]

51. Bingo. nt

[LovingA2andMI]

48. Isn't It Always Something....

We are losing whatever since of Democracy had, by the day, minute, week and moment.

[DeminPennswoods]

52. Poll workers tend to know the voters in their precincts

I think sometimes people forget that there are a lot of long time poll workers. It only takes a couple of elections for them to know the voters.

[ecstatic]

56. There will be new voters coming out this time. nt

[DeminPennswoods]

57. That's true

but still, you also see the same names in the poll books every election, so it's not a total surprise when a new or infrequent voter shows up. And also, poll workers generally live in the precinct they serve, so they'll also know voters from just seeing them around the neighborhood.