Expert: Antrim election software 'in the wild'

Sep. 2—BELLAIRE — Protected images from Antrim County's election equipment and a copy of the county's election management software is "in the wild," voting security experts say, after a Georgia-based data team in 2020 uploaded the information to an online storage folder where it was viewed and shared an unknown number of times.

"What happened in Antrim, there was access via the courts which was legal, but we found out afterwards people were abusing that," said Susan Greenhalgh, an election security adviser with Free Speech For People, a non-partisan group advocating for nationwide election security.

The election software used in Antrim County is used in many voting systems across the United States, Greenhalgh said, and records show may have been copied, shared and accessed by unauthorized users in other states, including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

On Dec. 6, 2020, staff with SullivanStrickler and their associates traveled to Antrim County by private jet and spent the day inside the county building conducting a court-ordered examination of the county's voting equipment, as part of an election-related lawsuit filed against the county.

The lawsuit was later dismissed, but not before a copy of the county's election management software and images placed under protective seal by 13th Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer, were uploaded to the online storage folder, court records show, where they were made available to unauthorized users between Dec. 8, 2020, and Feb. 26, 2021.

"They used us," Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy said Thursday, when informed that some of the county's protected election information had been shared beyond the scope of the lawsuit.

"That's what bothers me the most about all of this," Guy said. "They used us."

Guy was subject to threats and calls to resign after misinformation about Antrim County's 2020 election results was shared on social media by former President Donald Trump and his allies, including attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.

Guy acknowledged human error by her office led to initial results that had then-challenger Joe Biden receiving more votes than Trump. The error was corrected and, in the certified tally of county results, Trump easily beat Biden. A county audit confirmed this, showing Trump with 9,759 votes to Biden's 5,959.

When Trump lost Michigan by more than 154,000 votes, allies of the former president seized on the initial error and spread conspiracy theories about Dominion voting equipment and a "stolen" election. The accusations continued, despite state audits, expert analysis and an investigation by state senate Republicans showing the certified election results were accurate.

The data team that traveled to Michigan either worked for, or were associates of, SullivanStrickler and a signed contract dated Dec. 6, 2020 — the same day the team was in Antrim County — shows they were financed by Powell, via her non-profit, Defending the Republic.

SullivanStrickler, in a document titled "Engagement Agreement Forensic Analysis," included a pricing section showing the "State of Michigan work" would be performed for the flat rate of $6,500 per expert per day; 4 experts, $26,000; plus travel and lodging, with a retainer of $26,000 paid before work would commence.

The contract shows the team also was hired for work in Arizona with similar pricing, and text messages show many of these same people copied election data in Coffee County, Ga. — a breach that has since become the subject of a sweeping criminal indictment in which Trump, Powell, Giuliani and 16 others have been charged.

The SullivanStrickler team was not charged, and released a statement saying members believed their work was lawful.

The contract, text messages and other revelations are included in court documents from a civil lawsuit filed in federal court against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, by a plaintiff with an election security nonprofit, Coalition for Good Governance.

The ongoing lawsuit, Donna Curling, et al. v. Brad Raffensperger, pre-dated the now infamous 2021 phone call to Raffensperger — when Trump was quoted as saying, "I just want to find 11,780 votes" — by more than four years. That suit is unrelated to the civil suit in Antrim County, or the criminal indictment in Fulton County, Ga., brought by that county's district attorney, Fani Willis.

But exhibits filed in the ongoing lawsuit spurred Greenhalgh to call for a federal investigation into what she labeled a multi-state conspiracy.

"Now that the Dominion and ES&S software has been accessed and distributed by individuals without authorization," Greenhalgh said in a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, "the election system software is considered to be 'in the wild,' available to an unknown number of people and organizations that could use the software to undermine, disrupt, or tamper with elections in a number of ways."

That was in late December 2022.

When a section chief with the FBI wrote back, stating the FBI was not investigating, Greenhalgh again contacted Garland, referencing depositions Giuliani and others gave, under oath, to the January 6th Committee, and again asked Garland to investigate.

Greenhalgh said she is particularly concerned about what she called a "parallel plan," less visible than one that had urged the former president to use an executive order to seize voting machines, but that sought to gain access to voting machines and election software via local officials and other individuals.

"The plot was carried out successfully in Georgia and in Michigan at the direction of Sidney Powell on behalf of the Trump Campaign," Greenhalgh states, in her second letter to Garland.

"The software was captured and shared covertly among Trump allies, and is now being used to advance election disinformation," Greenhalgh said. "Yet it appears these unlawful activities, which could constitute federal crimes, are not being investigated by federal law enforcement."

In Coffee County, Ga., security footage of the county's offices, which has been widely shared online, shows members of the team from SullivanStrickler were let into the building by a Board of Elections member and the county's election director, and were allowed access to election equipment.

In Michigan, a special prosecutor, D. J. Hilson, last month indicted attorneys Stefanie Lambert and Matthew DePerno, and a former state representative, Daire Rendon, for allegedly attempting to access and tamper with voting tabulators.

Hilson said, in a statement, that a review by his office of the investigation by Michigan State Police, determined county and municipal clerks turned over the tabulators to unauthorized third parties after being deceived by some of the charged defendants.

The clerks, who were not charged, were not fully aware of how their community's tabulators were going to be used and manipulated, Hilson said in a statement issued by his office in August.

DePerno represented the plaintiff in the Antrim County election lawsuit and later ran, unsuccessfully, as the Republican nominee for the office of Michigan attorney general.

Hilson, who did not return a request for comment, was named special prosecutor after state Attorney General Dana Nessel recused herself.

Greenhalgh said the alleged access to voting equipment by simply asking for it from municipal clerks could show an example of the "parallel plan" she hoped the federal government, via the FBI or the Department of Justice, would investigate.

As of Thursday, Greenhalgh said she'd not heard back from Garland or anyone from the FBI, and is now in the midst of drafting a third letter, which she expected to send sometime in the next week.

"As someone who is hyper-sensitive to voting system issues, I was initially viewing (election system breaches) as a one-off," Greenhalgh said, of the unauthorized copying and/or release of election data in various states.

"It wasn't until the documents were disclosed from the Curling litigation, showing the Coffee County breach went all the way up to Sidney Powell, and that it was part of a multi-state plot, that I went, 'Oh my God, these were all coordinated from the top.'"