eudemonist
6mo ago
An hour after I wrote this, /u/SomethingMusic linked to reports of what appears to be Bad Idea #2 in action.
I think most of these would be tough to pull off in a week though, with the possible exception of jammers.
(Hi feds! I'm a good guy, promise.)
eudemonist
6mo ago
Wowza. Faked registration forms had correct names,addresses, DOBs, SSNs, Driver's License numbers, and phone numbers, but told detectives they didn't send it and that wasn't their signature. Detectives aren't usually coming around and asking about registration forms.
Also, they notified two other counties, who then both found forms with similar issues? Did they maybe then notify the rest of the counties, one would hope? And did the two counties catch the fakes on their own, or only after being notified? I'm curious...
Either way, scary. Even scarier that I suggested this in a comment here earlier asking about how to create disruptions.
eudemonist
6mo ago
I mean, yeah, those couple of oopsies did kinda cast fascist dictatorships in a negative light for a lot of people, I think.
eudemonist
6mo ago
A few off the top of my head:
Power substation attacks on Election Day, killing power to polling stations in a major metro for an extended period, say a few days.
A flood of mail-in ballots using the names of registered voters and info gleaned from credit agency data leaks, not necessarily with the intention of having them counted but to overwhelm the various crosscheck and verification systems. Bonus if lots of voters get to the polls on election day only to learn a ballot has already been submitted in their name.
Theft of a significant proportion of a large jurisdiction's paper ballot supply. Again, bonus if not discovered until late. Alternatively, a supply chain attack causing a significant fraction of ballots mixed into the overall supply to be slightly misprinted, requiring checking each blank manually to ensure it is correct.
Radio/cellular signal jammers covering polling places: as I understand it, the vast majority of machines use some type of communications signal to report results at the very least.
Exposure of a poorly concealed scheme to outright buy votes for cash (false flag, of course).
So, I had suggested this in response to someone asking about ways to disrupt the process rather than accomplish actual fraud, and so I tossed it out there with that in mind, thinking that the investigations and sorting of good from bad ballots post-hoc would be a wrench in the gears to sow discord. Application to successful fraud with this method would be somewhat limited.
However, in Pennsylvania any registered voter can "Vote In Person By Mail Before Election Day" by providing a valid Penn driver's license number--not a license, but a number--in person at a designated location, and apply for, receive, complete, and submit a ballot all at one time. Problems with this approach are that 1) in-person limits the number you can crank out to one per visit; 2) employees at the designated locations are finite in number, so while you could maybe get away with a couple visits depending on the size of the office, even that would be pushing it, and 3) if those voters ended up trying to vote on Election Day, they wouldn't be able to because a ballot had already been submitted in their name--which is fine for chaos, but not good for successful fraud. The latter of those could perhaps be gotten around if the fraudster limits themselves to inactive voters, but would require eithier getting really lucky none of them pick this year to become active or somehow having knowledge they won't, like perhaps knowing they're dead or have moved states. Alternatively, an associate in the Clerk's office would make things a lot easier.
Generally speaking, though, I think for successful fraud you'd be almost better inventing voters from whole cloth.
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