Politifact: No, Elon Musk's Starlink wasn't used to rig the 2024 presidential election for Donald Trump

[TheProle]

Jen Easterly, director of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, reported Nov. 6 that the agency had "no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure."

Officials from swing states that received Starlink technology after the September and October hurricanes also said Starlink technology could not have been used to benefit Trump.

North Carolina’s tabulators and ballot-marking devices are never connected to the internet, Patrick Gannon, the North Carolina State Board of Elections spokesperson, said. State law prohibits connecting such equipment to the internet, he said.

"Satellite-based internet devices were not used to tabulate or upload vote counts in North Carolina," Gannon said. "In addition, our tabulated results are encrypted from source to destination preventing results being modified in transit. We have no evidence of any alteration of votes by anyone."

The other six swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — have similar election security protocols to ensure voting equipment is never connected to the internet during ballot tabulation.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/nov/12/threads-posts/no-elon-musks-starlink-wasnt-used-to-rig-the-2024/

[TheProle]

1. AP: FACT FOCUS: Election officials knock down Starlink vote rigging conspiracy theories

CLAIM: Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk used his internet provider Starlink to steal the 2024 election for President-elect Donald Trump.

THE FACTS: These claims are unfounded. Election officials, including from multiple swing states, told The Associated Press that their voting equipment doesn’t use Starlink and is not even connected to the internet. States have additional security measures to ensure that the count is accurate, according to experts. Election officials and security agencies have reported no significant issues with the 2024 race.

“It is not possible that Starlink was used to hack or change the outcome of the US presidential election,” David Becker, founder and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, wrote in an email. “This, quite simply, did not happen, and could not happen, thanks to the security measures we have in place, and these conspiracy theories echo other disinformation we’ve heard over the past several years.”

https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-election-starlink-musk-steal-trump-38757341656d4f44243076d6356cb68b

[WarGamer]

2. I posted that earlier... no one cares. People would rather indulge in fantasy than face reality

[TheProle]

3. Sorry for the dupe.

There are some tough pills to swallow in the fallout of the election, but chasing conspiracies and throwing around misinformation serves absolutely no useful purpose.

[WarGamer]

6. Yours is layed out better than mine...

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Voting machines where votes are counted are not connected to the internet

I have been an election judge and have reviewed the testing of my county’s voting machines. I was a poll watcher at the central office in 2022. The only connection to the internet is the system to validate the identity of a voter. The machines uses in Texas to register the vote on a card and the machine at hat reads the ballot card are not connected to the internet. After voting is over, the machine that reads the ballot is taken to a central office to be tabulated. Starlink cannot affect the election results

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. Yeah, but what if your gut tells you something just ain't right?

That’s got to count more than actual facts , amirite?

[mzmolly]

7. Thanks for sharing.

I appreciate the information.

[TheProle]

9. Of course!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. Agree.

I'm disappointed by our loss but I know the difficulty of flipping a bunch of votes electronically.

Starlink is more of a conduit than a gateway.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. FACT FOCUS: Election officials knock down Starlink vote rigging conspiracy theories

I have been active in voter protection since 2004. I have been an election judge on several occasions and have been a poll watcher for the central counting tabulation room. The voter check in systems are hooked to the internet to check voter registrations and to code the paper ballots as to what elections are to be voted on by that voter. The machines where the voter make their selections and mark the paper ballots and the machines that tabulate these votes are not connected to the internet. As an election judge, we had to put up all of the machines other than the machine that tabulates the vote. Those machines were hand transported to either a designated drop off place or to the central election office where the machines were given to the machines that further complied the vote. There was a paper trail when we drop off the machines at either location.

I agree with these election experts

Link to tweet

https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-election-starlink-musk-steal-trump-38757341656d4f44243076d6356cb68b

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk used his internet provider Starlink to steal the 2024 election for President-elect Donald Trump.

THE FACTS: These claims are unfounded. Election officials, including from multiple swing states, told The Associated Press that their voting equipment doesn’t use Starlink and is not even connected to the internet. States have additional security measures to ensure that the count is accurate, according to experts. Election officials and security agencies have reported no significant issues with the 2024 race.

“It is not possible that Starlink was used to hack or change the outcome of the US presidential election,” David Becker, founder and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, wrote in an email. “This, quite simply, did not happen, and could not happen, thanks to the security measures we have in place, and these conspiracy theories echo other disinformation we’ve heard over the past several years.”

Becker further explained that the country’s nearly 10,000 election jurisdictions use a wide range of voting machines that are not connected to the internet while voting occurs and that nearly all votes are recorded on paper ballots, which are audited by hand to confirm the results of electronic tabulators.

“If anyone tried to interfere with the machines to rig the election, it would be discovered through multiple means, including reconciling the registered voters who cast ballots with the number of votes, as well as the audits,” he added.