Over on bluesky, getting a bunch of people claiming "Elon Musk's voting machines were programmed to steal votes from Harris", but they don't make clear what brand of pillows they're selling. It's sort of the 2025 version of "Bill Gates put 5G chips in the COVID vaccine to track you". - ThreadSky

mattblaze.federate.social.ap.brid.gy • 44 days ago

Over on bluesky, getting a bunch of people claiming "Elon Musk's voting machines were programmed to steal votes from Harris", but they don't make clear what brand of pillows they're selling.

It's sort of the 2025 version of "Bill Gates put 5G chips in the COVID vaccine to track you".

Comments

matthewdgreen.bsky.social•44 days ago

I’d like a debunking explainer. Some of my friends have asked this too.

mattblaze.org•44 days ago

Musk doesn’t make voting machines, for starters.

natecardozo.bsky.social•44 days ago

Starlink also has literally no role in elections, but people cannot be dissuaded.

matthewdgreen.bsky.social•44 days ago

I don’t believe the Starlink stuff. But I also don’t trust any counting software that isn’t backed by a statistical audit, either.

ellenenders.bsky.social•43 days ago

I don't think the concern is the voting machines, but the counting software. A good explainer about this & why it could not be compromised would be appreciated.

Rather than treat people like kooks, if someone (a team) sincerely answer ppls' questions & explain, b/c we don't understand

ellenenders.bsky.social•43 days ago

the machines/software. Ppl could submit questions, you could consolidate those, & answer them in a webinar or something.

We have good reason to not trust the GOP or Elon or Trump team. We see them cheat our country in numerous other ways, so, it's not unreasonable to wonder if they do this in

xsn8.me•44 days ago

Fine, so who exactly does make voting machines and how much evidence has been provided and proven regarding the hardening of said devices?

We are beyond the ability of trusting for the sake of trust. Without proof, everything is questionable.

thekilt.bsky.social•44 days ago

OK, so I'm just going to give my $.02 here, based on my information security experience, and having been an election judge in Maryland.

I can't speak authoritatively for other states, but in Maryland, the entire system is built on verification, and I assume/hope most other states do the same.

thekilt.bsky.social•44 days ago

All equipment arrives at the polling site in containers with tamper-proof seals. Individual hatches and ports are similarly sealed. Every piece of equipment that gets unpacked/opened is done so under observation and is logged, with the seals preserved and so they can be checked against the logs.

thekilt.bsky.social•44 days ago

If a seal gets removed during the day, say to deal with a technical issue,that gets logged and a new seal is put in place as soon as whatever necessitated its removal is resolved

mattblaze.org•44 days ago

Every state Secretary of State office (or equivalent body) has a website listing the election equipment certified for use in their state and the procedures used in elections. There’s a lot of information (I teach a whole course on election security), but it’s all very easy to find.

matthewdgreen.bsky.social•44 days ago

My friends don’t know what to do with that information. My general answer to their questions is: there are risk-limiting audits. So then I looked into which states had RLAs and whether they were done well, and I ran into a wall of confusion and differing opinions.

matthewdgreen.bsky.social•44 days ago

At which point I noped out of the thing because life’s too short. Meanwhile there are folks stirring up conspiracy theories about anomalies on social media and their allegations look superficially credible, but also a little tortured. But I have no way to rebut whatever it is they’re saying.

mattblaze.org•44 days ago

RLAs aren’t as widely done as they need to be. But that said, there have been ENORMOUS improvements in election security over the last decade or so. DREs are rapidly disappearing. RLAs, while not yet universal, are starting to become integrated into the process. Etc.

xsn8.me•44 days ago

Thank you, very helpful. I'm combating some of the same issues, voting conspiracy theory and what not, and it's great to be able to point to something people can use to verify the veracity of the subject matter.

r5-to-philly.bsky.social•44 days ago

https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2024/02/pennsylvania-voting-machines-elections-101-prebunking/

bicycle.bsky.social•44 days ago

agreed. assuming this account is a one-way bridge we would need to tag @mattblaze.org.

natanael.bsky.social•44 days ago

IIRC bridgy goes both ways *if* both users on both sides are opted in

foxxtrot.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy•44 days ago

@mattblaze I know Elon "runs" a lot of companies, but I'm pretty confident none of them are involved in Election Hardware.

r5-to-philly.bsky.social•44 days ago

Lindell often filled out the telethon time with folks without evidence of fraud to present their little youtube/rumble video theories live on stage

https://bsky.app/profile/r5-to-philly.bsky.social/post/3llhknhcmt22b

ApostateEnglishman.mastodon.world.ap.brid.gy•44 days ago

@mattblaze This is the problem, isn't it? When your theory isn't even a theory because you haven't fleshed it out enough to explain how it works. 🤷‍♂️

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