Can the NSA steal your vote? The security state and the mechanisms of democracy

The Free Press has covered the security holes in electronic voting for over a decade. In that time we have looked at both the hypothetical and real dangers of electronic voting. We've documented how the Bush administration stole the election in 2004 through internet based attacks.

This past year we revealed the Romney family's ownership of voting machines. We also documented illegal software patches being added at the last minute. We exposed an internet voting company and its ties to the national security state. That company, Scytl, literally ran and hid when confronted.

Scytl is mostly owned by Nauta Capital, a Spanish venture capital firm. Nauta also has a major stake in Carrier IQ, who makes spyware that is installed as a default on most smartphones. Nauta's installed director at Carrier IQ is Dominic Endicott, who formerly worked for Booz Allen Hamilton coordinating wireless policy with major carriers.

Internet voting suffered a setback earlier this month when the California Assembly allowed a bill that would have allowed it to stall in the Appropriations Committee. The national security forces that have been pushing internet voting are sure to revive the issue.

It’s a fact that the national security state has the ability to directly electronically intervene in elections. The NSA has been documented to be tapped directly into backbone of the internet, scooping up every single communication that is made by default. It would be child's play to simply block a certain percentage of unwanted votes, never allowing them to arrive.

The technical hurdle to intercepting and/or changing internet votes is determining which votes to intervene against. The national security state has technological solutions to this problem as well.

The large scale monitoring of all social media through the PRISM program gives the government a very clear indicator as to who will vote which way. Access to the voter registration databases allows them to know who is registered and who has requested absentee ballots. Use of MetaCarta allows this data to be overlaid at the precinct level.

If an election's results are too far from what is shown by scientific exit polls, suspicions will be raised, so voter suppression must be used to keep the voter turnout low. The national security state can do this by removing registrations from the database or by manipulating the tools to look up a registration. Voters can also be marked as having requested an absentee ballot, and that ballot can be not counted later after the unfavored candidate concedes.

Once the voters have been electronically suppressed, manipulation of the actual voters can begin. People who have no intention of voting can now “vote” electronically. Thus the ballot box can be electronically stuffed. A small number of votes can be intercepted and changed if needed. The central county tabulators can be broken into and altered if needed. The NSA has functionally achieved full spectrum dominance over the enemy.

Will the national security state tolerate the election of legislators who will not give them the rubber stamp they want? Will a politician who says they will provide real oversight to the intelligence community be permitted the office to do so?

The California legislature has temporarily checked the march of internet voting in one important venue. On June 27th, the FCC will vote on new privacy rules that may require Carrier IQ to continue to be installed on smartphone. The Free Press will watch the proceedings carefully.