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Champaign County Clerk blames “repeated D-DOS attacks” for slow voting issues

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Illinois

* From a buddy of mine in Champaign County…

My wife and I couldn’t vote where we usually do because internet issues had caused a massive line with lots of people leaving rather than wait what was at least an hour plus…She and I then drove to a country precinct to vote - only 3 people there. But the computer was broken there too. Finally got the internet back up. All in all, took about 5 minutes PER PERSON just to print a ballot!

* WICS TV has a statement from the Champaign County Clerk…

The Champaign County Clerk’s Office is aware of connectivity issues and computer server performance being impacted. The Clerk’s Office believes these are due to cyber-attacks on the network and servers. For the past month the Champaign County Clerk’s website has been the target of repeated D-DOS attacks, fortunately the reinforced security and response from the Clerk’s IT team has prevented these attacks from being successful and the Clerk’s website has remained secured. No data or information has been compromised and the election is secure.

These cyber-attacks are a strategic and coordinated effort to undermine and destabilize our democratic process. The intent is to discourage you from voting. Please do not fall victim to this. The Clerk’s Office is committed to ensuring every eligible voter in Champaign County has access to a fair, free, and accessible election. Please stay in line! Election judges and staff are doing everything they can to process voters according to the requirements of election law while navigating these attacks. We appreciate your patience and commitment to our democratic process. This is a developing situation, and we will have more information as it becomes available. Let me reiterate that we are committed to making sure every voter has a chance to cast their ballot so please stay in line.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:23 pm

Comments

Champaign County needs to examine how they are running their elections. I’m no expert, but as I understand how it normally works, the electronic voting results are transmitted remotely, but not through the internet. I’m confused why they are subject to this type of attack.

Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:34 pm
It’s a poorly designed system to have an Internet dependent device as a pollbook. They need to communicate to each other but should be able to work as stand alone for just this reason (weather D-DOS attack or just regular internet interruptions)

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:35 pm
Ammons has had a ton of issues before. I have no faith in him.

Comment by Nick Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:37 pm
I hope there are long sentences for any hackers who disrupt elections.

Comment by Big Dipper Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:42 pm
They need to get the Feds involved to ID the offenders, but why they insisted on using an Internet-based pollbook with all the election issues and previous problems….the pollbook should be uploaded to the voting machines so a DDOS doesn’t delay voting like it is.

Comment by thisjustinagain Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:45 pm
===he pollbook should be uploaded to the voting machines so a DDOS doesn’t delay voting like it is.

No, no, no. It’s good to have a copy on the laptops for these situations, but the pollbook and the voting machines should be completely separate. Voting machines should never be networked during an election.

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:46 pm
===Voting machines should never be networked during an election. ===

Correct.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:47 pm
That doesn’t sound good. We utilize a scantron-type paper ballot in Galesburg. Hope that there is progress in the future toward prosecuting those attacking our democratic institutions and processes.

Comment by Blue Man in the Deep Red Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:47 pm
This never happened when Gordy Hulten was clerk. Just saying.

Comment by so much for that Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:49 pm
===This never happened when Gordy Hulten was clerk===

I love Gordy, but did he ever have to fight off DDOS attacks?

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:50 pm
Who and why would somebody decide to ddos the Champaign County Clerk’s Office? That seems like a fairly obscure target, no?

Comment by dan l Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 1:53 pm
Not saying it’s Russia but not saying it’s not Russia, either.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134878028/yevgeny-prigozhin-russia-election-interference-putin

Either way, an attack on an election authority on election day is serious and the attackers should be punished.

Comment by Socially DIstant watcher Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:02 pm
They believe it is an attack. Maybe it is just incompetence. Much easier to blame someone or something else at least for now than say maybe we screwed up. And if it really is an outside attack where are the Feds

Comment by DuPage Saint Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:15 pm
== This never happened when Gordy Hulten was clerk. Just saying. ==

Gordy also didn’t have to deal with an opposition party actively sabotaging him, filing frivolous lawsuits that they withdraw a day later, all while using equipment so fragile that breakdowns happened just as much as these issues. Gordy also de-emphasized campus voting locations, so much that there were hour long lines all day during the last election he oversaw.

The poll book is connected to the internet, not the voting machines. We’re still on scantron paper ballots here in Champaign County, so the only delay is getting the ballot itself.

== Who and why would somebody decide to ddos the Champaign County Clerk’s Office? That seems like a fairly obscure target, no? ==

Given other shenanigans happening from the CCGOP… I’m not saying there’s a connection but I’m also not saying there isn’t one.

Comment by Leap Day William Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:16 pm
Champaign County Executive Darlene Kloeppel said county offices haven’t been affected by whatever is impacting the clerk’s election system.

“I’m on my computer right now,” she said.

Comment by Dr. M Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 2:48 pm
How the ?? Is an election being affected by DDOS? There is absolutely no reason for any election critical machine to be connected to the internet or any system where DDOS can occur. Everything should be stored local with paper backup. This is essentially saying the ballot machines are open to internet intrusion. Are you kidding me?

Comment by SKI Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 3:18 pm
As someone who knows a little bit more about this than most, looks like they added some universal votes centers on Election Day (in addition to the usual Early Vote locations that turn into Vote Centers on E-Day) but reading all the comments it appears as if every ballot was being printed. The solution is simple and one that was done in the past in Champaign County, send pre-printed ballot codes of the home precinct and the other most likely precincts to vote there based on geography so then you’re significantly cutting down on what has to be printed. We told the program the pre-printed codes into the program so the program knew what had to be printed and what the judges already had a stack of, so that it wouldn’t print.

Additionally, internet should never be a reason that voting slowed down, only thing that should be slowed down is transmitting the record of voting (NOT THE VOTES, BUT THE RECORD OF WHO HAS VOTED, just to be clear) from remote locations back to the server at Brookens.

Even without internet as long as the printers were hard-wired, you should always be able to process voters, short of someone physically breaking a poll book.

Comment by Matt Grandone Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 3:47 pm
I noticed in Chicago they’re using tablets with what appears to be a network connection to verify registration and signatures. Probably not a wise thing if these posts are anything to go by.

Comment by Angry Chicagoan Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 3:48 pm
Champaign County has a good number of students voting. It also has become a Democratic county for the most part. Gee, I wonder why someone would want to attack that??

Comment by low level Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 3:54 pm
=== it appears as if every ballot was being printed===

Yes, I voted in my home precinct, but they printed the ballot in front of me, so none were apparently preprinted.

Comment by Simple Simon Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 3:55 pm
Another Pat Quinn special–and all the incompetent people he placed in key roles in government. I still can’t believe he was elected Governor.

Comment by ANON Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 4:07 pm
Ammons always has an excuse and he is never the issue, just ask him.

Comment by Incompetent Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 4:20 pm
So how is the Internet connectivity working at the poll stations? If they’re using old hotspots, those could be pretty slow and might not have great reception in some areas. But I doubt they’d get DDOSed.

Comment by wayward Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 4:32 pm
To clarify my 1:45pm post…the pollbook should be uploaded to each voting machine BEFORE being disconnected from the Internet, so voting can continue until the polls close. Then the voting data should be uploaded to the server. I would not want the voting machines on the Internet while voting is going on.

Comment by thisjustinagain Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 6:01 pm
I can only speculate that the Internet issues are with the books that list the Champaign County voters and signatures they compare to verify identity. I don’t know if this is Illinois wide, but I think this is the first election where very Champaign County polling place is a universal polling location. So those books have gone from having to contain a few thousand voters per location to potentially 200,000 each. So I’d guess printed books are no longer feasible.

Comment by Narc Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 7:05 pm
The issue with universal polling locations is ensuring that someone cannot vote in multiple locations. The locations need to be able to talk to each other to prevent someone from pulling multiple ballots. Legitimate concern, but as others point out, there needs to be a backup to keep things moving. For example, if allowed by law, you could issue provisional ballots that will be counted as soon as Internet access is restored. But keep the lines moving so everyone can vote.

Comment by thechampaignlife Tuesday, Nov 8, 22 @ 11:35 pm