🚨 Tweet #37: How did the federal government get inside your county's election network?
They made it nearly impossible to say no.
After 2016, the Obama administration made a move in its final days that many Americans never heard about.
On January 6, 2017 - fourteen days before leaving office - DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson unilaterally declared local election systems "critical infrastructure."
-No vote by Congress.
-No input from states.
-No consent from counties.
-One declaration.
By one outgoing cabinet secretary. On his way out the door.
That designation gave the federal government the legal justification to offer "protective services" to every election network in America.
The protective service they offered was called the Albert Sensor.
A network monitoring device that sits inside your county's systems and watches every single connection - what comes in, what goes out, and where it goes.
And they offered it for free. Paid for by federal grants.
Counties with limited IT budgets were told federal money would cover it entirely.
Refusing meant leaving federal money on the table.
Refusing meant being asked publicly why you turned down federally funded election security.
It was not mandatory. It did not have to be.
The trap was built into the offer. And once those sensors were installed?
The data flowed to CISA. CISA coordinated with DARPA.
DARPA fed it to Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech analyzed it.
And as Professor Antonakakis confirmed in writing to his DARPA handlers:
Russian and Iranian command and control activity inside those networks was "beyond dispute."
Your county never agreed to any of this.
Your county never knew any of this.
They called it election security.
Your county called it their network.
They made it nearly impossible to say no.
After 2016, the Obama administration made a move in its final days that many Americans never heard about.
On January 6, 2017 - fourteen days before leaving office - DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson unilaterally declared local election systems "critical infrastructure."
-No vote by Congress.
-No input from states.
-No consent from counties.
-One declaration.
By one outgoing cabinet secretary. On his way out the door.
That designation gave the federal government the legal justification to offer "protective services" to every election network in America.
The protective service they offered was called the Albert Sensor.
A network monitoring device that sits inside your county's systems and watches every single connection - what comes in, what goes out, and where it goes.
And they offered it for free. Paid for by federal grants.
Counties with limited IT budgets were told federal money would cover it entirely.
Refusing meant leaving federal money on the table.
Refusing meant being asked publicly why you turned down federally funded election security.
It was not mandatory. It did not have to be.
The trap was built into the offer. And once those sensors were installed?
The data flowed to CISA. CISA coordinated with DARPA.
DARPA fed it to Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech analyzed it.
And as Professor Antonakakis confirmed in writing to his DARPA handlers:
Russian and Iranian command and control activity inside those networks was "beyond dispute."
Your county never agreed to any of this.
Your county never knew any of this.
They called it election security.
Your county called it their network.
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