Anonymous v. Rove

I love a good conspiracy theory.  I'm endlessly fascinated by stories that claim that not everything is as it seems and I get extra excited when those stories turn out to be not only plausible, but credible.  Such as it is with this story.  What started for me as a delicious conspiracy story has turned from plausible to perhaps even likely.  I'll leave it up to you to decide for yourself.  It all starts with the possibility of vote stealing and a warning from the "hacktivist" group, Anonymous.

Anonymous is a collective of internet activists that has become famous for its hacking skills and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks against government and corporate websites.  Formed from the imageboard 4chan, the group has been around since 2003, when it launched its first coordinated attack on the Church of Scientology.  The group gained prominence in its defense of WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange.  The group has launched DDoS attacks against such sites as the Department of Justice, the FBI, PayPal, and a number of large banks and credit card companies.  The above video warning to Karl Rove was posted by Anonymous on youtube on October 22, 2012, and it seems to be a warning that Rove and the Romney campaign should have heeded.  

Vote stealing became a little talked about but potentially huge problem in the 1980's and 90's with the increasing use of optical scanners to process paper ballots.  With this technology came the ability to steal votes on a state and nation wide scale.  In the new millennium, touchscreen voting technology made vote stealing even easier, with no paper ballot trail to rely on to prove any fraud had taken place.  Software used for Direct Recording Electronic voting (DRE voting) is proprietary and owned by the corporations that produce the machines.  There is the possibility that any number of votes could disappear or be flipped with the stroke of a few keys.  For more information on the plausibility of vote stealing, read an excellent article in Harpers, How to Rig an Election.

Anonymous posted the following letter on-line as a follow up to their warning to Karl Rove, 

“ 8 November 2012

…. We chose to take action against those who have subverted the will of the people in past elections, which resulted in terrible destruction across the globe. We began following the “digital traffic of one Karl Rove, a disrespecter of the Rule of Law, knowing that he claimed to be Kingmaker while grifting vast wealth from barons who gladly handed him gold to anoint another King while looking the other way.

After a rather short time, we identified the digital structure of Karl’s operation and even that of his ORCA. This was an easy task in that the barn doors were left open and the wind swept us inside.So what do we do with these doors? Do we leave them open and catch the thieves as they steal the prize? Or do we close them so they cannot steal the prize?Our decision —protect the citizens.  We coded and created, what we call, The Great Oz. A targeted password protected firewall that we tested and refined for the past weeks. We placed this code on more than one of the digital tunnels and their destinations that Karl’s not so smart worker bees planned to use on election night. We noticed that these tunnels were strategically placed to allow for tunnel rats to race to the server sewers from three different states. Ah yes, Karl tried to make it appear that there were more than three but we quickly saw the folly of his ploy.We watched as Karl’s little boys and girls confidently ran their tests while Karl told his barons to smoke cigars.

We watched as Karl’s speared ORCA whale was beached, rotting with a strong stench across his American playground, unable to be resuscitated. We watched as Karl’s weak corrupters repeatedly tried to penetrate The Great Oz. These children of his were at a loss–how many times and how many passwords did they try–exactly 105.

We work without remuneration. Karl, on the other hand, takes ships of gold from barons to do their bidding. We sank those ships and we have a warning for Karl–sail again at your peril. We may just put all the evidence into a tidy little package and give it to a painfully bored nemesis hanging out in a certain embassy in London. "

The entire letter can be viewed at www.velvetrevolution.us

So, here's what I know:

  In the 2004 election, exit polling results deviated wildly from the certified election results, especially in swing states.  In one Ohio precinct, exit polling showed John Kerry with 67% of the vote while the official totals gave him 38%.  The odds of this kind of deviation, according to the piece in Harper's is 1 in 867,205,553.  Karl Rove had his sticky little fingers all over that election.  The alleged vote changes had to do with a website that "posted Ohio election returns" directly to the web as they came in.  A mirror site was created by an outfit called SmarTech in Tennessee that was supposed to kick in if Ohio's servers were overwhelmed.  That happened, and the mirror site was engaged at 11:14pm on election night.  When Ohio's servers went back online, they did so with vastly changed vote totals.

As Karl Rove sat at the news desk on election night 2012 on Fox, he was stunned when Fox called Ohio for Obama.  Just like election night 2004, the Ohio servers were overwhelmed, (at 11:13pm) and the mirror site kicked in, just like in 2004; except when Ohio's servers came back online this night--the vote count remained unchanged and Ohio was called for the President.  

Less than a week before the election, Ohio Secretary of State John Husted had voting machines in numerous counties outfitted with a patch that was untested and uncertified.  Because the patch was "experimental", he was able to circumvent the certification process called for in Ohio state election law, even though experimental patches weren't supposed to be used in actual elections.  Husted had mounted a vigorous campaign to end early voting in his state and was the mastermind behind most of Ohio's voter suppression efforts.  

Lastly, there is the tidbit of gossip that Romney never bothered to write a concession speech, coupled with his behavior throughout the campaign.  Romney never bothered to make a serious effort to court independent voters.  In fact, he never made a serious effort to court any voters for that matter.  He always acted like a man who couldn't lose.

Like I said earlier, I love a good conspiracy theory.  Another thing that I love is the concept of Occam's Razor.  Occam's Razor states that the simplest answer is usually the right one.  In the case of Anonymous v. Karl Rove, the razor falls with Anonymous.  I encourage you to read the Harper's article on vote stealing and then draw your own conclusions.  One thing is certain though--whether or not Rove attempted to or had any intention of stealing votes and changing the outcome of this election, we must take steps to ensure there is a paper trail and accountability in our elections.  The dependence on corporate "word of honor" in our democratic process is not, nor has it ever been, good enough.  There must be oversight regarding voting machines and the software they use.  There's too much at stake for us to turn a blind eye to the mountain of evidence proving that election results can be, and have been, manipulated.