Judge Janelle Factora Wipper, Washington County Circuit Court, ruled on October 14, in the case of Washington County vs. Tim Sippel for the county keeping voters in the dark. Her ruling gives a sucker punch to freedom of information disallowing public access to records that may have cleared the air regarding certain election data. Judge Wipper contended this case could affect 15 counties and other states using the same voting machines. Dr. Douglas Frank, advising Attorney Stephen Joncus at the trial, said he expected the judge would rule in favor of the state, but not all is lost. Every case, whether won or lost adds more evidence into the record, and there have been many cases across the country.

The court rules that the SQL.ZIP file is:

1. Conditionally exempt from disclosure under the computer programs, security and trade secret exemptions.
2. Public interest in keeping the information safe and secure to protect the integrity of elections systems in Oregon.
3. Disclosure of the SQL.zip file for public interest does not outweigh the need to exempt this file from production.

Dr. Frank stated that for Oregon to hide this data makes it look like they have something to hide. Some counties have already released the data. The state and Washington County claimed there are security issues, breach of contract and trade secrets, and no public interest. Public interest is that the public has a need for the information. Attorney Joncus argued that the public has lost faith in the system and they have a right to know. Secretary Fagan just launched a campaign to bolster election integrity targeting false information, seemingly supporting the public’s need to know.

The takeaways from this trial are rich. Before the trial began, AG Rosenblum made a statement admitting machine are hackable under oath to secure a protective order. “Oregon tabulators are subject to wireless attacks and if the information is released, it would cause irreparable harm to Oregon’s election system.”

Oregon Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum, joined the Secretary of State Shemia Fagan with Washington County in the lawsuit to stop Tim Sippel from a records request for the SQL election database. The SQL files are the tests run on the machines prior to the elections to see that the machines are operating correctly. It takes data from various tables it has access to, and it can manipulate that data to come up with an answer according to its protocol.

Sippel wanted to check the data for what other states are finding. Jeff O’Donnell found in Colorado that the machines were making a second data base and erasing part of the data and injecting other data coming up with a different result. In Massachusetts, they proved that the machines flipped and stuffed votes, and it was counting images, not the ballot. Michigan’s election was overturned when the judge ordered the voting machine opened and found modems.

Attorney Generals are critical to elections in every state. They are in charge of election security. Leading into the 2020 election, Oregon Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum joined 23 Democratic state attorney generals in writing an urgent letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Rules Committee to strengthen election security. The letter asked for election-security grants so states could update their equipment and train election officials in information technology and cybersecurity.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

In 2021, $2 million was allocated to Secretary of State Fagan to distribute to counties for ballot tabulators, postmark scanners, ballot drop boxes and surveillance equipment that went unspent. This year legislators reallocated $1 million for postal barcode scanners and other equipment. The Secretary is using the other half on public service announcements and ballot tracking, and the remainder is being held for emergencies and divided among counties in 2023.

At the trial, Mark Cook, an IT Expert told the judge, “by-the-way, the internet security protocols you are using were hacked four years ago, I’d recommend you shut down your internet right now and install new security software before you run your county systems.”

As Dr. Frank traveled around Oregon, he observed that county clerks are using technology throughout the election system that they know nothing about. He says, “they simply repeat what they are told – machines are secure, they aren’t online, but they are. We are asking people to run elections with equipment they know nothing about.”

Mickie Kawai, Washington County Elections Manager for 33 years, testified regarding “air gaps” where ballots needing adjudicated are removed from the process via an isolated connected network through a cable. She described the process of ballots scanned into Del laptops that have modems that don’t take a password to turn on. She seemed to unknowingly verified to the court that their everyday Del laptops are on a network accessible by the internet and hackable without a password.

Tim Sippel testified that in his examination of the ballots, every ballot had a unique identifying code on it and the ballots are not anonymous. He has found lots of anomalies that he wants to talk to county clerks about. He testified that on what he has analyzed, he has found 60 counterfeit ballots.

Dr. Frank says he didn’t expect a favorable verdict. What he has learned in Oregon is, “judges move up the ranks by following precedence (the ultimate conformity) and not making waves. Judges who stand out, judges who make stands, that’s the end of their career.” Oregon’s judicial system lends to this ranking where there is an unwritten rule that retirements and resignations take place after close of candidate filings so the sitting Governor can appoint a replacement bypassing being elected.

Consideration for appeal would slow down the work on election integrity and that’s a cost that might not be worth an appeal.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-10-20 06:11:35

Last Update: 2022-10-20 14:29:53