Posted on 10/12/2022 4:59:41 AM PDT by george76
After the arrest last week of the CEO of an election software company amid alleged ties to China, at least two suburban counties outside the nation’s capital canceled contracts with the company, Konnech Inc.
The moves by Virginia’s Fairfax and Prince William counties follow cancellations by Detroit and Los Angeles County, where the District Attorney’s Office has alleged that Michigan-based Konnech stole information about election officials and poll workers.
Fairfax and Prince William canceled their contracts to use Konnech’s primary product, PollChief.
“Effective this week, we have suspended using PollChief and are erasing any data contained on their server to avoid any further data issues,” Prince William County announced in an Oct. 7 tweet.
Eric Spicer, Fairfax County’s director of elections, issued a statement that the county emailed Tuesday to The Daily Signal.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Fairfax County Office of Elections has ceased its use of PollChief election officer management software used in Fairfax County, and is ending its contract with the software’s developer, Konnech,” Spicer said in the prepared statement.
Eugene Yu, founder and president of Konnech, was arrested by local police in Michigan in connection with an investigation into the possible theft of personal identifying information from election workers in Los Angeles County.
...
The Epoch Times reported Fairfax County’s decision Thursday, the day after the arrest became national news. The Fairfax County Republican Party noted that it previously made public records requests to the county about Konnech before the arrest of Yu, the company’s top executive.
“It is important to note that Fairfax County has never used software from this company to collect or store sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers or banking information,” Spicer said in the written statement. “Furthermore, this software is not connected to the county’s voting systems or the state voter registration system. It cannot be used to tabulate votes or election results.”
Yu, born in China, emigrated to the United States in 1986, Newsweek reported. His company has 21 employees in America and six in Australia. Konnech had garnered contracts with 32 clients in North America.
Los Angeles County canceled a five-year, $2.9 million contract with Konnech. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, a Democrat under fire for being soft on criminals, said the alleged offense by Konnech had no impact on election results.
Detroit terminated its $320,000 contract with Konnech, which was approved last year by the City Council, the city’s NPR affiliate, WDET, reported Friday. The company had worked for the city since 2008.
“Our data, which is now back under our exclusive control, was housed on servers located in Lansing, Michigan. Konnech, per its contract, only provided logistical and call center support,” Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told WDET.
“Out of an abundance of caution, all proper steps are being taken — including the termination of Konnech’s contract. My staff and I are confident that the 2022 election process will run smoothly, delivering, after all votes have been counted, an unimpeachable work product,” Winfrey said.
A Konnech representative asked The Daily Signal on Tuesday to send an email inquiry, which the company representative said would be passed along to the election software company’s public relations firm. No one had responded to that email inquiry as of publication time.
Konnech promotes PollChief as an “Election Worker Management System,” saying on its website: “Manage your poll workers with one comprehensive and intuitive software tool.”
The marketing text continues: “Our poll worker management tool is specifically designed for election managers. This software tool will eliminate the tedious portions of your management process and help you organize and streamline your operations, saving you time and money.”
Konnech’s website touts its products as “Used by thousands of Election Offices across North America.”
Where have we seen that before...like with a cloth, or something...
Did this software have a social credibility or RAT score to determine who could be trusted to keep RAT secrets? Per an earlier article I read on Fulton County Georgia, they kept a spreadsheet to keep track of the banned poll workers.
There is definitely more to the story when DC appears to do the right thing?
Georgia GOP wants Konnech contract terminated; FBI said to have ‘flipped’ investigation
Konnech had been the subject of a months-long investigation by the FBI until April when the D.C. headquarters got involved and shifted the focus to conservative election analysts who had been cooperating with the investigation, those analysts said in a live chat.
On Oct. 5, Ingham County (Michigan) Prosecutors Office Unit Chief Nicole Matusko called Yu “a significant flight risk,” adding that he has “substantial ties to the country of China” and “maintains relationships with family and friends” there.
Matusko also revealed that when arrested, Yu “was in fact on his way to the airport” without his cellphone, according to a report by The Post Millennial.
“He is a technologically savvy individual, so in our view, leaving his cellphone behind when going on what he said was a business trip to another state is suspicious,” Matsuko said.
In Georgia, DeKalb County’s Republican Chairwoman Marci McCarthy has requested that the county Elections Board terminate its contract with Konnech.
“The DeKalb Board of Elections is exposing County taxpayers to extraordinary legal risk and financial liability if they cannot enforce the terms of the contract with Konnech — which guarantees that Konnech stores the data in the Continental United States in a certified Microsoft Azure hosting facility,” McCarthy said in a letter to the five-member board.
Phillips noted that when he and Engelbrecht took their information to the FBI, the bureau “said the information was forwarded to their counter-intelligence operation, and a counter-intelligence op was opened up in January or February of 2021.”
Phillips described how he and Engelbrecht played an active role in the FBI’s operation: “They engaged us in the operation, they were communicating with us on a regular basis. They were communicating with Catherine regarding communications with the target and this went on for approximately 15 months.”
Phillips and Engelbrecht noted that the FBI field office they worked with for those 15 months was “legitimate” and not “political law enforcement.”
“These were legitimate people who believed that this software posed a national security risk to the United States of America and they were working with us closely to try to stop this from being in place during the midterms,” Phillips said. “The focus point was always we needed to remove this software from the election, but taking a step further, there were a lot of other concerns that the bureau had.”
The FBI agents indicated that Konnech had already “been on their radar” and that there were “lots of other problems” with the U.S. election company, including “banking issues” and problems involving the company’s overseas operations in “Australia” and “Canada.”
In April 2022, Engelbrecht received a call from one of the FBI agents, who informed her that the FBI’s “Washington D.C. headquarters” was now involved in the investigation.
Engelbrecht described how everything changed after this call, “There was no more goodwill, there was no more let’s work together, the script had been flipped, and now we were the target,” she said. “That was a very disturbing call.”
The agent informed Engelbrecht that “two women” at the FBI’s headquarters believed that Phillips and Engelbrecht were “in the wrong for doing this” and that the D.C. office was now trying “to figure out how you guys broke the law to find all of this.”
Engelbrecht added, “which of course we didn’t, but that was kind of their MO [modus operandi], they were going to try to pin something on us, and today you can pick your headlines about how the FBI has done this time and again.”
Phillips said: “The problem is they know about this, and they chose to do nothing. They chose to investigate it, and in the end, they chose to blame us, but this is China. These are Chinese operatives in the United States; these are Chinese citizens who are programming this.”
Engelbrecht and Phillips, who have worked in the election industry for a combined 50 years, described how this was a “complete and total failure” of federal law enforcement, U.S. intelligence, and the Department of Homeland Security which is primarily responsible for securing the “critical infrastructure” making up the U.S. election system.
WORTH REPEATING FROM THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE
“In April 2022, Engelbrecht received a call from one of the FBI agents, who informed her that the FBI’s “Washington D.C. headquarters” was now involved in the investigation.
Engelbrecht described how everything changed after this call, “There was no more goodwill, there was no more let’s work together, the script had been flipped, and now we were the target,” she said. “That was a very disturbing call.”
The agent informed Engelbrecht that “two women” at the FBI’s headquarters believed that Phillips and Engelbrecht were “in the wrong for doing this” and that the D.C. office was now trying “to figure out how you guys broke the law to find all of this.”
Engelbrecht added, “which of course we didn’t, but that was kind of their MO [modus operandi], they were going to try to pin something on us, and today you can pick your headlines about how the FBI has done this time and again.”
Phillips said: “The problem is they know about this, and they chose to do nothing. They chose to investigate it, and in the end, they chose to blame us, but this is China. These are Chinese operatives in the United States; these are Chinese citizens who are programming this.”
Engelbrecht and Phillips, who have worked in the election industry for a combined 50 years, described how this was a “complete and total failure” of federal law enforcement, U.S. intelligence, and the Department of Homeland Security which is primarily responsible for securing the “critical infrastructure” making up the U.S. election system.”
Corrupt rats in full CYA mode!
P
Can’t figure out why, but that term, “election industry” just doesn’t sit well.
Maybe I just need more coffee
I’m with you! In Florida, my early voting ballot is issued by “Dominion Voting Inc.” I am not feeling super confident in the voting integrity in Florida this year.
Thanks for the ping.
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