Top Maryland officials say the FBI told them this week that the state's voter registration platform was purchased by a Russian oligarch in 2015, without state officials knowing. The FBI did not indicate a breach occurred, but state officials say they're moving forward with a full review.

"We were briefed late yesterday, along with Governor Hogan, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the software vendor who maintains portions of the State Board of Elections voter registration platform was purchased by a Russian investor in 2015, without the knowledge of state officials," Maryland State Senate President Thomas Mike Miller, Jr. and Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch, said in a joint statement Friday.

State officials say they were told they were told their voter registration system, ByteGrid LLC, is financed by AltPoint Capital Partners, whose fund manager is "a Russian" and largest investor is Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin. ByteGrid LLC performs a vast array of voting-related functions for the state, including voter registration, the state's online voter registration system, online ballot delivery and unofficial election night results.

"While the FBI did not indicate that there was a breach, we were concerned enough to ask Attorney General [Brian] Frosh to review the existing contractual obligation of the state, as well as asked for a review of the system to ensure there have been no breaches," Miller and Busch said.

Last edited Sun Aug 19, 2018, 10:40 PM - Edit history (1)

just found this out because she ran and lost a close race that was audited, which is how she found out about this Russian oligarch.

Somehow I don't think this is an isolated incident involving just one obscure, local race in Maryland.

Did this and other hidden, Russian-affiliated companies influence the 2016 election and maybe are prepared to skew 2018 since we know the orange pustule's admin. has not done a thing, and won't, to protect our elections?

march on our state capitols and demand paper ballots. We already have them in my state, I think it's state wide. I vote by mail.

The ONLY verifiable way to vote now.

Call in United Nations monitors if necessary.

Some states have the problem solved. Others are controlled by Republicans who want to be able to jiggle the totals.

It should be universal. Automatic registration if you have a SSN. Paper ballots. Hand counted. Vote by mail.

THIS is the real voter fraud--that our elections systems are owned by Russian state actors, and no one in Congress seems to give a damn.

and thorough vetting of our entire government. We have a right to know, as American citizens, who is influencing or is attempting to influence and corrupt our system of government. We then must act expeditiously to correct the problem areas and strictly enforce and pass laws so that what we are witnessing at present never happens again. We have much work ahead. I hope we have the fortitude and wherewithal to see this through to the end.

because Congress won't, especially as long as they are run by the GOP.

In the back of my mind I harbor the fear that the Democrats are balls-deep in this shit too.

Yuck.

This is how my junior high school teacher said that a foreign government would take over. She said it wouldn't be like in the movies, with troops marching down our streets. She said they would infiltrate the government, and infiltrate our country in other ways. Being in government was the key. Trump. No telling how long the Russians have been working on getting someone in the White House. I read somewhere that Russia started laundering money for Trump back in the 1980s.

They probably have been working other individuals, as well. But Trump did it for 'em. I wonder who else they've been grooming for the Presidency? For other political offices?

Last edited Mon Aug 20, 2018, 07:04 AM - Edit history (1)

where there are no hidden mics.

That slithery, opportunistic skunk wants to be next in line.

Thanks for the post. Every bit of info helps clarify the big picture and the challenge in front of us.

Too many times there were more votes than voters. Too many times the exit polls were "wrong". We have some serious work to do.

...to contribute to a political campaign but they can hold the contract to the voting machines? Is that true? If so, we are completely screwed.

I would know it within 3 seconds after I close the polls.
The tapes we run from the scanner and the electronic voting machines must total the number of names on the voter log my clerks record. They write down the name and voter ID number of every person who comes to vote. We post the number of votes every two hours on the front door of the location, and hand count the names on that list. If there are 40 names filled in, the tally better be 40 from the machines. If we are off, it's easy to look them up and count the voter signatures in the precinct log if we do it on schedule. At the end of the day, the totals from those sheets, & any spoiled or provisional ballots has to match the machine totals and equal the number of ballots removed from the sealed packages which come in the cabinet with the machines.

We have around 1500 registered voters in the average precinct here. Election Day vote generally totals much less than that. My biggest vote was March 2016, with 675 voting in person, in a precinct with 2000 voters. So if my tallies came up at over 2000, alarms would go off everywhere.

During early voting, totals are posted every two hours and verified with the lists. Total up at the end of the day must balance.

Believe me, if that number jumped up anywhere near the number of potential voters I'd be on the horn to Elections Central in about 3 seconds.

I'd know if the tallies indicated more votes than signed in voters because of that count every two hours

More votes than people registered...everyone shrugged...remember the Amish supposedly voting for W? But No One cared enough to even check. So, now you got Russians in the middle of it.

Why didn't we do something before a foreign enemy got control of it?