I voted this morning. As I did, I paid close attention to the security arrangements, because that is my nature. I was a computer security consultant for 30 years and many organizations and systems benefitted from my analysis and recommendations. One other point on that: my old co-consultant friend Avi Rubin used to pay much more attention to electoral systems implementation (notoriously taking apart Diebold’s systems) but that was not my gig. My gig was looking at broad-scale attack surfaces and mentally pursuing endless “what if?”s in order to find ways to improve the system.
So, I walked into the room (there were no glowering gun-toters outside, or I would have called 911) and there was a table and 4 people. One of them is my neighbor who owns the farm across the street. I know they are deranged maga-heads but her behavior was exemplary, I will say that openly and publicly. There were 3 people in line ahead of me.
It took a few minutes because one of those people did not appear in the voter rolls. She suggested her new married name and one of the poll people asked for her address and photo id, especially if it had her new name. Gosh that makes sense! Everyone had a look-see then checked her off in the roster, she was given a ballot, and sent on.
My turn “hi Marcus!” from the neighbor and I was quickly found, checked off, I signed the roll next to my name and was given my ballot. I went over to the privatized table, filled it out, then went over to the scanner and the scanner guy and I watched it go through. It produced no errors, folds, or tears, and the scanner guy gave me a sticker and literally showed me the door.
Total time, 5min.
Now let’s look at scenarios:
1) I return 20 minutes later wearing a MAGA hat and claim to be someone else. Neighbor and other poll operatives sing (in 4-part harmony) “why don’t you wait for the cops while we call them!” And I don’t get to cast that vote.
2) I manage to do convincing make-up so I come in looking like the old guy up the street. I vote his vote. Then an hour later the real old guy shows up and the roll-takers all say “your name is checked off! You have already voted!” And when the state police show up they probably check his ID thoroughly and calls are made to the election commission to contest the ballot I spoofed earlier. Meanwhile, I sm now a felon!
3) I come in and try to vote for the guy up the street who died. Oops, the roll-checkers say, “Snake Plissken! We heard you were dead!” Then “wait here until the state police arrive."
4) I get a bunch of extra ballots from somewhere, fill them out, and convince scanner guy to stand aside (“Snake Plissken? Sure I’m not tangling with you.”) and I run them through. Now the tallies will not match: there were 1,193 people registered to vote and a big bunch of ballots appear in the system that were not attached to a checked-off person who was on the voter rolls. Then ensues a hand comparison between the serial numbers on the ballots and the ballots that were actually handed out, and now the poll-workers have a list of the ballots they need to contest. And I’m a multiple felon and will need a great lawyer if they catch me. Also, scanner guy has some questions to answer and may plead the 5th his way into a stay in a federal prison.
5) I alter the summary of the votes produced by the scanner and it’s the same scenario as 4) unless I have help from pyramid-building aliens who time-warp some umpty ump into the network potrzebie and wossname the frads.
The voting system depends heavily on the ability to cross-check registrations with actual votes. Anywhere there is a disparity it’s a red flag that can be investigated using the registrations, signed log book, and ballots.
I am sure the aliens who built the pyramids were good enough with the tech that they could use a matter assembler to whip up an exact, edited, copy of the rolls. But if the aliens were so good, what did they need the massive army of Egyptians and slaves dragging around all those 2ton rocks for?