I think it’s also a great risk and a shot-in-the-dark kind of attack. They wouldn’t have “live” access to the machines so they would’ve needed a complicated algorithm to alter results in a believable way. If 100% of votes for Harris get swapped to Trump that’s very suspicious. If it’s only 10% of votes then you risk having no affect. And if the attack is successful on every machine in a deep blue county or precinct that makes the amount you could reasonably swap even less. In other words it’s extremely difficult to be effective AND be subtle.
The Starlink theory sounds a bit more plausible but that also sounds like a stretch assuming the transmissions were encrypted (and God help us if they thought that wasn’t necessary).
I think it’s also a great risk and a shot-in-the-dark kind of attack. They wouldn’t have “live” access to the machines so they would’ve needed a complicated algorithm to alter results in a believable way. If 100% of votes for Harris get swapped to Trump that’s very suspicious. If it’s only 10% of votes then you risk having no affect. And if the attack is successful on every machine in a deep blue county or precinct that makes the amount you could reasonably swap even less. In other words it’s extremely difficult to be effective AND be subtle.
The Starlink theory sounds a bit more plausible but that also sounds like a stretch assuming the transmissions were encrypted (and God help us if they thought that wasn’t necessary).