ATLANTA — During a Georgia state Senate hearing, failed treasure hunter, J. Hutton Pulitzer, or Commander Pulitzer (no record of military experience), claimed that he had “hacked” Georgia’s voting system. The treasure hunter provided no evidence during the Senate hearing that he had done so, only claiming it had happened.
“Fake news is hard enough to combat when mainstream media outlets push it out, but when a small cadre of Georgia legislators do it, it’s a whole different story,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a news release. “These legislators need to stop calling their own re-elections illegitimate and focus on getting out the vote for the Jan. 5 elections. The mistrust they are sowing is depressing turnout. If Sens. Loeffler and Perdue lose on Jan. 5, the Georgia state legislators have only themselves to blame.”
In an election disinformation-filled hearing, a small group of Republicans in the Georgia state Senate featured the claims of failed inventor and failed treasure hunter Pulitzer as a star witness. In his presentation, Pulitzer, formerly J. Jovan Philylaw, claimed without providing any evidence that he had “hacked” a poll pad. He then went on to claim that meant that the entire voting system was compromised, even though the poll pad, like the poll books which they have replaced, are never connected to the rest of the voting system.
Pulitzer was the inventor of CueCat, a cat-shaped device that, when connected to the computer, allowed users to scan barcodes on ads that would bring up the website where they could purchase the advertised product. The device attracted $185 million in investment before becoming “an anathema of the tech industry and a cautionary tale for investors.” In 2006, the invention was listed as one of the “25 worst tech products of all time” by PC World magazine.
Pulitzer later became a treasure hunter, searching unsuccessfully for the Ark of the Covenant and later claiming that a sword, that was likely a fake, not only had “‘magical’ magnetic properties” but was also a sign that ancient Romans had visited North America by 200 A.D.
His published work comprises largely “Commanders Lost Treasures” books, a separate one for many states in the U.S. that includes “How to Cut Off Your Arm and Eat Your Dog.”
Despite Pulitzer’s claims, the poll pads are the only piece of election infrastructure that is ever hooked up to the internet or connected to devices that are hooked up to the internet. The poll pads have that capability so election workers can download updated voter lists to the poll pads that are used to check people in on Election Day. However, the Wifi capability is disabled before the poll pads are put into use at the polling place.
Additionally, the touch screen interfaces and attached printers are never attached to the poll pads and are air-gapped so they cannot be connected to the internet. Finally, the scanners, which scan and tabulate the printed paper ballots that voters can review before casting, are not connected to any of the other equipment at any point either.
In a statement, poll pad creator KnowInk said, “The assertions made about unauthorized access to our systems are patently false. The man claiming that someone ‘got into’ our systems did not happen, according to our forensic analysis. There was no ‘hack,’ there was no ‘back door’ entry, there was no ‘pump and dump,’ and there was no access through a ‘thermostat’ located hundreds of miles away in Savannah.”
(3) comments
Perhaps people should go hear his testimony before reading this garbage and bias piece
If you watch the recording of that Georgia Senate hearing, when he claims he "is in", he welcomes anyone to come over and look at his connection, and verify what he is claiming about having access to the voting system through wi-fi. I have yet to read or hear about anyone at the meeting saying it was false, that he was not in. Pulitzer also said he would document his connection as best he could and add them to the meeting records. To just write an article like this and say what he is claiming is impossible, and then trash him by insulting him, is not journalism. Tell us why he was wrong, the guy welcomed anyone to come look at his connection, live, right there in the meeting, and apparently no one who did that has any evidence he was not connected. How about printing the evidence he said he recorded of the connection, and tell us why that is wrong, instead of telling us his past inventions were on some list of bad inventions
I agree sad thing is no one will watch
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