Claims from users on the anonymous messageboard 4Chan went viral on Saturday evening, as people said they discovered a way that ballots can be cancelled online in Washington — and that an Oregon voter’s registration can be changed, using just the voter’s name and date of birth.
(Article by Cassandra Fairbanks republished from TheGatewayPundit.com)
The claims were that they uncovered a vulnerability that could make way for large scale systemic voter fraud.
Their exploit allegedly worked to change registration for voters who are in the military, overseas or disabled. The claims rapidly went viral across social media — but some (or all) of the assertions making their way around Twitter and Facebook may be misleading or false.
These are some of the screenshots that went viral:
It seems as though the website will allow people to create a ballot for someone else, using just their name and date of birth, but it must be printed, signed and returned. Additionally, the form that it creates, at least in Oregon, requires a valid ID number or copy of another accepted form of identification.
UPDATE: Washington state does as well.
https://twitter.com/TweetBrettMac/status/1317731368248500224
Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling tweeted that “the ‘mark my ballot’ button is NOT the same as actually voting. It creates a form that absentee voters must submit to the elections office.” He added, “simply clicking these buttons does not create a vote. The form must be submitted by fax or email, and the form does not work unless you have been granted absentee ballot status by an elections official.”
https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1317710924510162944
Oregon’s voting rules do require a valid state ID number or the last four digits of your social security number in order to return an absentee ballot.
However, people on social media who were digging into the alleged vulnerability also claimed that by starting the process of changing a person’s registration online in Washington, it cancels any ballot that the person has already cast.
We have not yet been able to confirm or debunk this claim.
https://twitter.com/Tritario1/status/1317698068943409153
The Gateway Pundit could not independently verify the claims, as that would be voter fraud. We have reached out to the Oregon State Elections Office for more information and will update this story if a response is provided.
Obviously, if someone can in fact cancel out ballots that have already been sent in, the potential for voter fraud with the vulnerability 4chan users may have exposed is jaw-droppingly massive.
We will be continuing to provide updates as the story unfolds.
UPDATE (4:59 a.m. EST): The Oregon voter portal is now down for maintenance.
Please contact us for more information.