It Is Hard to See Certification as Anything More than Theater

At today’s Torrance County Commission meeting, an analogy given during public comment provided a fresh perspective of the vote tabulator machine certification process. Torrance County Libertarian Chair Pro-Tem, Rob Wagner, made an analogy comparing the quality control of toothpaste production to the certification process of the Dominion Voting Systems tabulator machines. By abstracting away the complexity, it is hard to see certification as anything more than theatre. The process felt intended to portray the machines as safe, secure, and “air-gapped” (having no direct connection to the internet or to any other computer that is connected to the internet). However, some questioned the rigor of the certification process. Mr Wagner stated in public comment:

If a toothpaste company would have a recall of a batch of toothpaste. And they would bring that batch back and they would inspect the cardboard box that the tubes were sent out in, to make sure that they weren’t tampered with. Then they would open those boxes up and pull them out and look at the tubes themselves to make sure that the logo is printed right. The ingredients are on the back. That the tube wasn’t punctured in any way. That the top screws on and off. And that the tube had toothpaste in it. They would never test the actual toothpaste itself. And the reason I say that is the certification process looks at the machines that they’re physically functioning properly. It never checks the data that is going to and from Santa Fe.

Rob Wagner public comment during 10/12/2022 Torrance County Commission meeting

Mr. Wagner then proceeded to describe a much-overlooked vulnerability; the removable memory card.

A big part of my concern comes in these cards, these memory cards that are in the side of the machine. Memory cards like them are typically not allowed on certain systems that have sensitive data. You can’t even put them in machines with that [sensitive data]. And the reason is because of how fast they transfer data between the computer and the card itself and how much data can be on them.

Rob Wagner public comment during 10/12/2022 Torrance County Commission meeting

That removable memory card device is known to us laymen as a “flash drive.” The device everyone is banned from inserting into their work computer, university computer, or any other computer protected by a savvy network security team, is somehow passed between tabulator to a computer connected to the internet, and then back to the tabulator.

After the test deck of ballots is put through the machine, at the end of the certification, one of the cards is pulled out, brought into the clerk’s office, and then put in the computer, and that data is uploaded to the click Secretary of State’s office. There is no chain of custody for that memory card. It doesn’t exist.

Rob Wagner public comment during 10/12/2022 Torrance County Commission meeting

The Estancia News decided to fact check Mr. Wagner’s claims. A quick Google search turned up a contract between the State of Michigan and Dominion Voting Systems. The contract included illustrated diagrams describing exactly what Mr. Wagner asserted in his public comment.

According to Dominion Voting Systems (Based on the diagrams above), tabulator machines can communicate either directly from their own internal cellular modems, or indirectly via a removable drive transferred to another computer or laptop connected to the internet, and then back to the tabulator.

The certification checklist requires the Clerk “certify” each network port on every tabulator be “sealed”, presumably to demonstrate it does not connect to the internet. The Secretary of State also pledged to New Mexico its vote counting machines were “air-gapped”.

New Mexico utilizes air-gapped counting systems, which means that our vote tabulators are prevented by law and process from being joined to a computer network or the Internet.

If that is the case, why must the precinct judges transfer data from the tabulators to the Secretary of State every night of the election via the removable drives, as a past Precinct Judge recently informed the Estancia News? How are Secretaries of State able to obtain vote totals so quickly? Many have thought that an impressive trick.

Perhaps Mr. Wagner should add yet another analogy to his repertoire . The new analogy Mr. Wagner ought to consider requires a “pledge”, much like the one on the Secretary of State’s “Rumor versus Reality” website:

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.

Christopher Priest, The Prestige

Being able to post “real-time” election results while claiming the election machines are “air-gapped” is a “trick”. Being able to produce the desired election results without public or legal reprisal is the “prestige.” Can Maggie pull it off again?