The Honorable Jared Polis

1644 Walnut Street, Boulder, Colorado 80302

Thursday, January 12, 2017
Dear Mr. Polis:

During the last week, the Senate Armed Services and Senate Intelligence Committees obtained open
briefings concerning Russian hacking. Statements were made at and after those briefings that raise
questions as to the basis for the presented conclusions. In summary, Senators repeated the reassuring
talking point that the voting systems and vote tallies were not hacked. After the hearings, Presidentelect Trump tweeted that the voting machines were not touched. We knowledgeable experts in the
election quality community believe that no testing was done on the systems that would allow such a
conclusion. We are concerned that the DNI and other briefing officers are miscommunicating their
findings, or that their findings are being misunderstood. Another possibility is that election officials
have misinformed the DHS on the vulnerabilities of the system to hacking. (Through installation of
malware when software is updated, for example, voting machines, scanners, tally computers, and
servers can be easily hacked despite not being directly connected to the Internet.)
We respectfully request that during the 9:15 a.m. Friday briefing of the U.S. House of Representatives, you make inquiries into the scope of the voting systems testing. We have listed some questions
below for your consideration:
1. What specific testing was done to determine whether the voting systems (not just voting
machines) were compromised?
2. What specific penetration analysis was done by our intelligence agencies with respect to
states voting/tabulation/reporting systems?
3. Which states were tested, and when?
4. Were system logs of voting system components examined by experts for signs of unusual
activity?
5. Were post-election tests of the resultscomparing them to paper ballotsconducted by
intelligence agencies to confirm that undetected manipulation had not occurred?
6. Did the intelligence agencies review the systems of the vendors who program the memory
cards for voting systems in many elections?
7. Did the intelligence agencies operate on the theory that if components are not connected to
the Internet, they are purportedly protected from intrusion?
We have worked with election officials in Boulder and elsewhere and our secretary of state to
improve the integrity of elections. We know that there are serious vulnerabilities in various election
systems, especially in jurisdictions that have no paper ballots or audits. We fear that some selfserving and partisan interests are attempting to prematurely close the book before a meaningful
investigation can be conducted. Given national security implications of this issue, it is imperative
that Congress clearly understand the nature of the work that has been conducted. A realistic review
of the vulnerabilities is required, including a review of whether they were exploited in 2016.
Thank you for your service to Coloradans and all the citizens of the United States of America. We
are happy to answer any questions you may have concerning this topic.
Very truly yours,
Mary C. Eberle

Neal McBurnett
(https://electionverification.org/aee-statistics-and-auditing/)

Boulder, CO

Boulder, CO