How The 2004 Presidential Election May Have Been Hacked

Ohio’s 2004 presidential election is one many won’t forget. Democrat John Kerry was the leader and exit polls pegged him as the winner. Defying explanation, a last-minute shift in votes favoured Republican George W. Bush and propelled him to victory.

New filings in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v Blackwell case sheds some light on how the 2004 election may have been hacked. The story starts with SmartTech, a Tennessee-based hosting company with strong Republican ties.

SmarTech was hired to provide a failsafe server for the rare occasion a network problem occurred. This isn’t unusual. All properly managed networked systems have a backup in case of failure.

But in Ohio, there was no significant failure and voting data was unexpectedly switched over to SmarTech late in the voting process. This sudden shift coincides with an increase in votes favourable to Bush. Hmm, is there a mackerel in the room because something smells fishy.

IT security expert Stephen Spoonamore has studied newly released network maps and believes the SmarTech server was not a backup, but a man in the middle server that had the ability to input and alter voting data on the fly. Spoonamore is convinced the election was stolen,

“The computer system and SmarTech had the correct placement, connectivity, and computer experts necessary to change the election in any manner desired by the controllers of the SmarTech computers.”

To make things even more intriguing, SmarTech was owned by Michael Connell who mysteriously died in a 2008 single-engine plane crash shortly after being served a subpoena in this case. His full testimony will never be heard. [The Truth]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.