General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Anonymous Claims It Stopped Karl Rove From Hacking The Election By Hacking ORCA [View all]RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)ORCA is a program that places itself into the stream that networks county and state election computers. When ORCA is working it is connected to each county election computer.
At each county computer are read/write pages showing vote totals.
(Read/write means that you can write to that screen and read what was written and rewrite it so that it reads different. On DU you are working with a read/write program. Simply, it is called editable.)
So as the numbers are entered at county level, ORCA reads the numbers and changes those numbers at will. The data entry person at the county computer is updating so much that they can't keep track of the changes.
If the count is from a DRE -- Direct Recording Electronic -- there is no data entry person. The numbers are written from one computer to another without any human sight.
OpScans numbers are also transferred electronically from a red/write memory stick.
So, there is ORCA with a human sitting there looking at the numbers coming in and editing those numbers as the person sees fit. Those new numbers are sent over the network to the county computers. Changing those numbers sight unseen. It doesn't even have to be a human, it could be a computer program reading and writing.
What Anon claims to have done is place an administrative password on the ORCA system keeping the person at the ORCA keyboard from logging in (much like you log in to DU) thereby stopping ORCA for accessing the network and rewriting the numbers on the county and state computers.
Te following article from the St. Pete Times details election officials not being able to publish its results until 16 minutes after the polls were closed in one Florida county that prides itself on being the first to upload its data to the web.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/local/pasco-countys-voting-website-buckled-under-traffic-officials-say/1260997