The Cyber Side of Election Integrity

The Cyber Side of Election Integrity
I had the privilege of attending the Cyber Symposium sponsored by Mike
Lindell, of MyPillow fame, held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota last week. This
conference focused primarily on election integrity, particularly as it
pertains to election voting machines.

Mike’s heart is in the right place; he loves our country. He, along with his
team of cyber, IT, mathematical, and legal experts, have put forward their
own time and money to investigate the 2020 election, in particular the
irregularities regarding the electronic voting machine system.

I have seen many critical and contemptuous of him and his efforts. To them
I say: Has he done everything right? Probably not. Is all his data totally
accurate and total proof of fraud in the 2020 election? That remains to be
seen.

But he has done enough right and gathered enough evidence that points to
manipulation, interference, and potential fraud large enough to impact the
outcome of the 2020 election in the presidential race and likely other
congressional races as well.

He is at least “in the game” and has some information worth considering
and that presents reason enough to make changes with the voting machine
system. He is not “sitting on the bench” as many critics are, scornfully
judging those working to ensure our elections have integrity and thus
seeking to keep our country on sure footing.

One piece of strong evidence we saw was by physicist and mathematician
Dr. Douglas Frank from Ohio that demonstrated with voter data from Ohio
and Pennsylvania and others that election participation in 2020 followed
the exact same mathematical pattern in each county of that state. And
another state would have a different mathematical pattern but it would be
the same in every county in the state. He said that election participation
would never be that precise mathematically, that it is mathematically
impossible. He said it would be like rolling a dice 83 times and coming up
with the same number every time. Impossible. That points to not just

human meddling only, but also the use of machine interference and
manipulation. To confirm this, he checked election participation data
before the age of the internet, and patterns were random, as one would
expect.

We also heard elections expert Seth Keshel, a former Army intelligence
captain, discuss his analysis of election trends and voter participation.
What he showed demonstrated that the results of the 2020 presidential
race defied every trend. For example, out of the 19 bellwether (historically
proven leading indicators of election outcome, perfect since 1980) counties
in the nation, Trump won 18 of them and Biden won 1. (By the way, Bremer
County in Iowa is one of the bellwether counties!) Also, Iowa, Ohio, Florida,
and North Carolina have all voted for the presidential winner since 1896
and all of them in 2020 went for Trump. In addition, since 1892, no
incumbent president has gained votes in re-election and yet lost.

At the symposium I participated in a mock election as a “hacker” into an
electronic machine voting system such as we use and that we have been told
over and over, “It’s not connected to the internet”. The cyber and IT experts
who had set up the system demonstrated how any voting machine no
matter what company, particularly at the county and state levels both
during data transfers, can be hacked and vote totals added to or subtracted
from. Hackers can gain access wirelessly from a remote location even on
voting systems that we are told “are not connected to the internet”! This is
because, in fact, they are internet capable. This can happen in spite of
county and state election officials working very hard and doing their best to
do everything “by the book”. I know there are many honest, hard-working
precinct election officials, county officials, county auditors, state officials
that do a great job and this is in no way directed at or reflective of them; it’s
out of their control.

Some at the symposium were calling for forensic audits of the 2020 election
in all 50 states. According to Seth Keshel, based on past election and voter
participation patterns, little or no fraud has been seen in Iowa. And Iowa is
the only state with that distinction! Credit goes to many people for that
because it takes a big team to have that kind of success: election precinct

officials, county officials and auditors, state officials, Secretary of State,
legislature, governor, and the courts. Thank you! After visiting with Capt.
Keshel regarding Iowa’s unique situation, I believe that for Iowa to do a
forensic audit, we would not gain enough to be worth the time and money
spent. However, I do believe we can gain much from what is learned from
forensic audits done in other states and adopt policies and practices
applicable to Iowa that they adopt from lessons learned from their audits.

For example, we got to hear a presentation from some Arizona senators
who told the story of the audit of the 2020 election conducted in Maricopa
County and their fight to establish and conduct the audit. It is still being
concluded. The Arizona state legislature is still getting resistance from the
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Dominion Voting Systems in
responding to a subpoena to turn over their routers. Arizona legislators are
proposing a bill making a number of changes to their voting system based
on their experience with the audit thus far. I want to look that over to see
what can be applied to Iowa.

We heard an interesting proposal that is being considered in Texas and has
the support of the governor there. It is to adopt a voting machine system
that has NO capability of being connected with the internet, wireless or
otherwise. The only thing it can do is scan your ballot, make an image of it,
and burn a DVD-ROM of all the ballot images in that precinct. Using a
counterfeit-proof paper ballot that has a serial number, it would burn an
image of your ballot. The voter would be able to look up their ballot online
using its serial number. The DVD would then be taken from the precinct to
the county courthouse.

Ideas mentioned for a counterfeit-proof ballot included currency (money)-
grade paper, watermark that is UV light reactive, secure micro-print, ballot
hologram, etc. This is to prevent “stuffing the ballot box”.

Some might say “Iowa’s elections are already pretty secure”; and “we didn’t
have the issues that they had in the battleground states”. I believe that is
true as far as we have been able to tell and that is great! We need to
remember one reason is that the legislature has been pro-active regarding
election integrity and security for years and come behind after every

election to plug any loopholes that surfaced during that election. The 2020
election was no different; we came behind with a law to plug the loopholes
we found as well as address mistakes made in other states to ensure they
don’t happen here. We addressed voting periods, absentee ballot request
forms, election misconduct penalties, poll closing times, voter roll
registration maintenance, ballot harvesting, drop boxes, etc.

But one big area we left wide open for cheating was our voting machine
system. That is what needs to be addressed next legislative session. We
need a system that does NOT even have the capability to be connected to
the internet, period. Not just that it’s not “turned on” or whatever reason
may be given. There is NO good reason to have a voting machine that even
has that capability, period. We should not wait until we have “definite
proof” of our voting systems being hacked. If we wait until something that
bad happens before we act, that would mean someone who is a rightful
winner might be denied their office and a fraudulent “winner” be installed,
someone the people did not choose. No honest person wants that scenario.
Let’s take action up front to ensure we never have to deal with a situation
like that in Iowa. It will be money well-spent.

By the way, the senators from Arizona testified regarding the attitude of
Dominion Voting Systems as having nothing but contempt for the people’s
representatives and for the voters of Arizona. Why do we want to do
business with companies like that?? Absolutely not!

Some may say, “we can get such fast results on Election Night with internet
capability, why should we give that up?” It’s possible a secure election may
mean results come slower. However, now we are giving up accuracy and
integrity for convenience and speed. We need to remember that
convenience and speed serves only the media; accuracy and integrity serves
the people.

For those that think I am digging up “old news”- “the election was over
months ago, just forget it”. There’s no way we can forget it. There was
enough wrong done that as a state we must ensure that all steps are taken
to shore up the integrity of our elections. Otherwise, voters will not have

confidence in their elected leaders or in their government. And in a republic
such as we have, that confidence is critical to success.

If fraud occurred in the presidential race and perhaps in some
congressional races as all the evidence so far indicates, and nothing is done
to stop it, then what will happen in future elections? Evil that goes
unchecked only increases. At what point do we act? When our voice is
totally silenced? How many elections away is that? We should not wait to
find out. We should act now.

It’s time to bring Iowa’s election system into the 21st century. And that
means having a voting system that with 100% certainty is unable to be
penetrated by 21st century threats. Counterfeit-proof paper ballots & no
internet-capable voting machines. Easy to vote and even harder to cheat!

Anyone who supports this action MUST contact all state legislators as the
legislature generally does not act unless it hears an outcry from the
grassroots people. Only the voice of the people can overcome legislative
inertia. You can contact them all at once by emailing:
alllegislators@legis.iowa.gov

Or you can contact them as individuals at their own email address and
phone number: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/senate for Iowa
senators and https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/house for Iowa
representatives.

Feel free to contact me with ideas, thoughts, and concerns. My phone is
319-987-3021 or you can email me at sandy.salmon@legis.iowa.gov . I want
to hear what you are thinking and will listen to your input. Together we will
work to make a difference for the future of Iowa. Thank you very much for
the honor of representing you!

Sincerely,

Sandy