U.S. Election Assistance Commission snubs CIA analyst's warning about electronic voting machines

March 25, 3:59 PMBoston Progressive ExaminerMichael Richardson

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U.S. Election Assistance Commission seal

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission was created to oversee federal elections and regulate the electronic voting machine industry. Slow to the task and led by holdovers from the abandoned National Association of State Election Directors oversight scheme, the EAC has inched along developing a bureaucratic infrastructure to address the problems of electronic voting machines.

The main problem with the software driven devices used in electronic voting machines is that they can be hacked by undetectable malicious code or in simple language, the machines cannot be trusted.

Academic studies are piling up against the various voting machine manufacturers over the security and reliability of the machines. In February the EAC arranged for a cyber-security specialist at the Central Intelligence Agency to give them a heads-up about hacking.

The EAC website has posted Steve Stigall's CIA resume for all the public to read. The EAC also posted a summary of his remarks. However, what the EAC did not post were Stigall's dire warnings about the dangers of the voting machines.

What the EAC told us.

Steve Stigall started working for the CIA in 1985. Stigall's early analytic career at the spy agency was focused on Soviet strategic missile forces. "Since 1995 he has specialized in foreign computer threats. In 2000 Mr. Stigall was inducted into CIA's Senior Analytic Service."

Describing a "growing potential for cyber vote fraud" the EAC summarized Stigall's remarks.

"An analysis of foreign countries' experience with computerizing their election systems has revealed challenges to the electronic safeguarding of increasingly computer-dependent elections. This presentation, while not addressing US-specific approaches, offers insights for policymakers in this country who seek to enhance the role of computers and computer networks in the electoral process."

What the EAC didn't tell us.

McClatchy Newspapers has obtained a transcript of Stigall's warning to the EAC which they kept from the official website and have not shared with 'policymakers' in any public manner.

Stigall told the EAC that the CIA had reported apparent vote-rigging in Venezuela, Macedonia and Ukraine. The news report was of "disturbing lessons for the United States" where Stigall warned of five entry points where a "malicious actor" could "make bad things happen."

Stigall told the EAC that any voting machine connected to the internet could be hacked and that machines not hooked up could be hacked wirelessly if the machine had a wireless card embedded in its hardware.

Stigall said that most web-based ballot systems were proven to be insecure. The CIA began studying foreign voting systems after concluding that foreigners might try to hack American elections to alter the outcome.

Stigall suggested that even an audit of the Venezuelan alleged-rigging may have been fixed. The CIA focused on Venezuela for study in part because Smartmatic, a Venezuela-connected company, owned Sequoia Voting Systems until 2007. The machines with a foreign connection were in use in 16 states and the District of Columbia raising concern at the CIA.

Stigall explained that in the country of Georgia people who died in the 1700's were added to the electronic voter registry. While in Macedonia the number of Albanians' purged from electronic voting lists amounted to "voter genocide".

According to the McClatchy story, Stigall asked the EAC not identify him yet the Commission posted his resume anyway.