The Problem With Voting Machine Certification In Arizona
December 21, 2022
Certification of voting machine systems is a Pandora’s box. There are too many unforeseen means to exploit voting machine systems, from within and without, to justify the risk of abandoning paper ballots, same-day voting, and tabulation. It’s all about ethical behavior, feel-good policies, and sleight-of-hand con jobs—passing a chicken over a pot of boiling water and calling it chicken soup.
Maricopa County, Arizona, has many unresolved serious issues from the 2020 Election that raise questions about the election’s integrity and validity (here and here). The 2022 midterm results are also very troubling as well. See also, “Arizona Midterm Elections . . . Ballot Harvesting.”
In my professional experience investigating financial crimes, many employers in small businesses give the same person control of the business checkbook and responsibility for reconciling the checking statement. The owners then wonder why embezzlement happens.
Do our elections require security on par with our national strategic assets?
My answer is an unequivocal “yes” because of the severe implications to our national security if our voting system can be exploited. It’s all about managing acceptable risk. For example, there’s the risk “posed by Biden and his son’s alleged dealings with China…(e.g., was COVID a bio-weapon the CCP used either intentionally or accidentally to interfere with this election?)….”
Image: Russia’s KOIB computerized voting machine in 2012, by Petri Krohn. CC BY-SA 3.0.
During the 2020 election, COVID meant many things were ignored or exploited, e.g., voting machines, mass mailing early voting ballots, late suspicious ballot drops, and delays in counting that altered the final count. Consider this alleged vulnerability with ballot adjudication machines. See how that suggests fraud.
The media and government officials labeled anyone who questioned the results as an election denier. Notable election deniers who brought civil cases questioning the reliability of voting machine systems were sued for defamation. So much for free speech, as we experienced with COVID, Russiagate, the validity of Hunter’s laptop, the murder of Seth Rich and who has his laptop, and now election denial too? Only those murder organizations with large war chests can survive the lawfare battle and federal scrutiny and bullying
Computers are not infallible. Malevolent actors can manipulate computers. My two favorite examples are Star Trek (Original Series), Court Martial (fictional), and the book Cuckoo’s Egg by Clifford Stoll (non-fiction), which was made into a PBS NOVA episode.
The simple answer is to trust no one and question everything.
Certifying electronic voting systems has evolved since Congress passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), which created the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The EAC accredits independent testing laboratories to certify voting systems and develops voluntary voting system standards. These guidelines are voluntary for the states (likely deferring to the Election Clause, US Const. Art I, Sec 4, Clause 1.) Many states have their own certification standards that require federal certification.
Arizona is in the latter category (ARS §16-422(b)). The Arizona Secretary of State has an equipment certification committee and electronic voting system standards (ARS §16-441 to 16-452). Currently, Arizona certifies the voting systems listed here. Maricopa County uses the Dominion Voting System equipment and its Democracy Suite 5.5b software.
The EAC certified Pro V&V (formally, Wylie Laboratories and NTS Huntsville) as a testing lab in 2014. Pro V&V certified a modification of Democracy Suite 5.5b using the EAC VVSG1.0 (2005) testing standard on 09-10-19. Democracy Suite 5.5 was certified by Pro V&V using the EAC VVSG1.0 (2005) standard on 09-14-18.
From the EAC site, it appears that, once a voting system is certified, no recertification is required to be consistent with the latest testing standards. For example, the Democracy Suite 5.5b was certified to the EAC VVSG1.0 (2005) standard and not the newer standard EAC VVSG2.0 (2022)(see also EAC VVSG 2.0 Test Assertions).
Why did Dominion fail certification in Texas but was certified by Arizona with similar standards?
The answer seems to be those different labs carried out the tests, a differential that also points to problems with electronic voting machines. In my opinion, based partly on relying on my trusted sources in cyber-security, the vulnerability of voting machines was well-known for years on the Dark Web. These systems can be exploited at many levels from both the inside and outside. These systems lack the standard cyber-security protocols that one would expect in such critical systems. The EAC certification standards are a feel-good façade that lacks meaningful testing of the source code, if at all, by red teaming (pen testing) in real-world scenarios.
The Maricopa Board of Supervisors approved a forensics audit of the ballot tabulation equipment after the 2020 elections. Two EAC-certified testing labs were hired to do the audits, including Pro V&V, which did the most recent certification of the Dominion Vote System:
Maricopa County’s election equipment and software passed all tests performed by two independent firms hired to conduct the forensic audit, according to reports by two federally certified Voting System Testing Laboratories.
In April 2022, Kari Lake sued Maricopa County seeking to ban electronic vote counting systems, but a federal judge rejected the case to deter “similarly baseless suits in the future” and sanctioned the plaintiff’s attorneys. The judge called the case “conjectural allegations of potential injuries” and continued, “[he would] not condone litigants … furthering false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process.” (Emphasis mine.)
One of the plaintiff’s attorneys is famed constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz later commented:
“I have never challenged the results of any Arizona elections,” Dershowitz wrote. “I have provided legal advice about the future use of vote counting machines by companies that refuse to disclose the inner workings of their machines.” (Emphasis mine.)
The radical left and others have joined together (with a grain of salt) in a criminal enterprise (RICO) to subvert the rule of law and equal justice for all for their own interests. The DOJ, the FBI, the Dept. of Homeland Security, and others have gone rogue and full Stasi in support of the radical left. This criminal enterprise aimed to overthrow a duly elected President and undermined his election in 2020.
We must have confidence in our elections and accountability for those involved for our constitutional republic to survive. We are facing a situation that WWII American soldiers returning to Athens, Tennessee, faced in 1946, only to discover that corrupt local politicians had rigged elections.
Ron Wright is a retired detective, having served thirty-five years with Riverside PD, CA. Ron earned a BA in political science from Cal State University, Fullerton, and a master of administration University of Cal, Riverside. Facebook at Ron T. Cop.
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