Tinfoil Hat Time.......Missing Veteran's Data = Voting Records

[Avalux]

I've been trying to come up with a reason why, if it was indeed a planned burglary, the stolen data would be so valuable other than the obvious identity theft (which may be part of my theory too).

If the Republican party obtained personal data on millions of Americans, they could check their voting records and perhaps manipulate them. Would this tie into what the NSA is doing? Perhaps. I just read the post about the McConnell bill passing and now I'm really wondering.

What's the possible impact on an election if the Republicans have personal data and know exactly how 26 million Americans vote? What possible devious plot could they dream up?

[gristy]

1. Why would the VA have voting records? What voting records?

And if they did, in what way would they "manipulate" them?

I don't see any connection.

[Avalux]

2. The VA doesn't have voting records.

But with personal information, anyone could get it on any individual. One could even obtain a voter registration card in someone else's name.

[deFaultLine]

4. ID time

These people should be worried about having their identities stolen, how the hell can the government be so sloppy about securing records?

[John Q. Citizen]

3. How would they be able to tell how someone voted? They might be

able to gleen party affiliation but you can do that legally in most states. I can go down to the elections clerk office and see who went to the polls but not who they voted for.

[Avalux]

5. By pretending to be that person.

If you have someone's personal data (SSN, birthdate, address) - it would be easy to find out.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. How? Who keeps records of how someone voted? We don't put

our names on our ballots before we turn them in.

Try it on yourself. Go find out from some outside source how you voted in any election, since you have your own SSN, DOB and address.

A secret ballot isn't linkable to an individual.

[Avalux]

10. Maybe not who you voted for, but your party affiliation is registered.

I get my voter registration card stamped Democrat and that's how I'm marked in the logs. How about this - those veterans who aren't registered voters....others could register in their names and vote as them for Republicans.

(I'm really stretching now.) ;-)

[John Q. Citizen]

25. I agree that information is power and there may be ways to use

the info in electoral politics.

However, anyone can go down to the clerk of elections office at any county building in my state and see who is registered, what their party affiliation (if any) is and if they voted in the last election. No need to steal it.

As far as voting another persons ballot, what happens when the authentic person shows up? And you need to create all those false documents to show ID, and you need lots of willing people to pull off a crime.

It's much easier and simpler to gerrymander, to suppress the minority vote and to rig the tabulators.

[donsu]

6. I thought of the retired Generals that spoke out against smirk

they could blackmail them over medical things.

that's what I thought first.

[Avalux]

7. I thought of that too.

They could use the information to do a lot of things - and keep a lot of people quiet.

[linazelle]

9. This is the third or fourth incidence of "missing records" -- millions of

them.

This is no coincidence. This information is being stolen and used to pour into somebody's databases. I don't doubt that the NSA is involved.

[Stalwart]

11. Another Purpose?

If so many records with SSN numbers are being stolen then is this perhaps justification for a new numbering system? A new system with a National ID Number with one of its claimed benefits being that it makes the stolen numbers less valuable and the major benefit to "make Americans more secure"?

A theft with intent to promote changing the locks instead of stealing a valuable?

Buy new locks from the thief?

Was the theft "creating a demand" for a new system that trades more liberty for security?

If the government stole what it already owns is it really a theft?

Who benefits?

[Avalux]

13. Good points.

I wasn't going that direction, but what you've said is certainly valid. Ammunition for a National ID number.

[suffragette]

16. Real ID already mandated a de facto National ID

by requiring that the same regs would be needed for all states' iID's, such as databases be linked and that Homeland Security have access to these and mandating certain "security features" such as biometrics and/or RFID's be included.
Some states and governors have been resisting implementing Real ID, so it's very interesting that the McConnell amendment specifically mentions Real ID in it . That could undercut the resistance since states could risk disenfranchising citizens if they don't conform.
All these databases. All this info.
I think it's quite possible the VA ID theft fits in here somewhere too, but I'm not quite seeing how yet.

[dogday]

12. Was the data password protected??

I keep wondering if data so confidential should not be in a password protected program???

[Avalux]

14. Don't know - a laptop and a disk were stolen.

That's what I heard on NPR yesterday. The report gave no indication if the disk was inside the laptop or seperate, and no talk of password protection. They did emphasize that the worker was not supposed to have taken the data home and that he had it for a "project" he was working on.

[elehhhhna]

15. Why would the fed announce the theft if THEY took it?

makes no sense.

[donsu]

17. you need to read more mystery novels

nt

[kestrel91316]

18. Here's my tinfoil hat theory.....................

the RW has access to voter registration records. They do a Watergate-style burglary of the VA records, so now they have names, SS#s, addresses......everything needed to muck up credit records. So they set about doing massive identity theft of ONLY REGISTERED DEMOCRATS by cross-checking the two databases.

Ruin your opponents financially............THAT'S what this is about!

[Avalux]

19. Ahhhh!

There you go! How about this one? They check to see if the veterans are registered voters, and those who aren't - they 'register' them as Republicans then use imposters to vote with their identity.

:shrug:

[kestrel91316]

20. Hey, if YOU can think it up, I bet they already have, too!

[Avalux]

21. Now that's a scary thought.

I wouldn't count anything out when it comes to Rove and co. :scared:

[crispini]

22. Voting records are ALREADY public information.

At least in my state. Not how you voted, but what primary you voted in, which amounts to your voter registration. You can cough up $100 to the elections office and get a CD of everybody in the county's voter history. Furthermore, you can write the elections official and request a copy of an individual's voter history and they will send it to you. I have seen this done often, as a sort of "background check" on a candidate.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

23. they issue tin-foil hats to patients at the VA where I am treated

it's uniform of the day. In many cases, how we used to vote isn't the real issue. How we'll vote after all this bushco fiasco is the REAL issue. They already know plenty of VA patients deplore the system, so it's likely just a hunting list. It's a dangerous job but someone has to be the first citizens committed to the secret new gulags they probably built. It's been nice knowing you DUers. please send smokes.

[theboss]

24. I can get that same information tomorrow by myself

All you have to do is go the courthouse.

There is a record there of every election I've ever voted in.

Haven't you ever wondered what those old ladies at the polls are doing? Geez, Louise.