Savannah Hulsey Pointer, FISM News
Authorities in Michigan are looking into how a stolen voting machine from the state ended up being offered for $1,200 on eBay last month.
A Connecticut-based cybersecurity specialist bought the device, informed Michigan officials, and is now holding it for law enforcement to pick up. According to CNN, the device was abandoned at a Goodwill facility in Northern Michigan before a man from Ohio sold it last month on eBay, according to CNN.
The sale of the voting equipment comes as investigators in Michigan, Colorado, and Georgia look into any attempts to access voting machines or collect data from them after the 2020 election.
The Democratic attorney general of Michigan has requested that a special prosecutor look into her Republican opponent, Matthew DePerno, after discovering information that she purports connects him to a scheme to interfere with voting machines used in the 2020 election. DePerno has refuted the charges.
The Michigan machine was bought by Ean Hutchinson, an Uber driver from Ohio, who bought it from an online Goodwill auction with a winning bid of $7.99. Hutchinson then flipped the machine and listed it on eBay with a starting price of $250.
Hutchinson’s eBay listing read, “Own a piece of history! This voting machine was one of thousands used in the 2020 United States presidential election and included in one of the many lawsuits against Dominion that were thrown out,” according to The Blaze. The Uber driver eventually sold the machine for $1,200 to Harri Hursti from Connecticut.
Hursti had a particular interest in the machine as he has been described as “one of the foremost election machine security experts and organizes an event every August in Las Vegas where hackers are given access to voting machines in a bid to identify and remedy potential vulnerabilities.”
After receiving the machine, Hursti, who typically purchases retired voting machines, notified the Michigan secretary of state’s office. That office instructed him not to open the box, in order to preserve it for law enforcement. The office emailed Hursti a few days later, saying, “Thank you again for bringing this to our attention. We have determined this device originated in one of our jurisdictions. The jurisdiction has now reported the device to law enforcement as stolen.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, oversees elections held in the state. Ms. Benson said the missing machine being sold online doesn’t mean there was a lapse in voting security.
“Michigan’s elections are secure,” Benson said, according to Mediaite. “Before every election, we test every machine for accuracy. We’ve never seen, even with this unauthorized access to machines, any actual evidence of any challenges or wrongdoing or lack of security in the process.”
“While our elections remain secure and safe, we take seriously all violations of election law and will be working with relevant authorities to ensure there are consequences for those who break the law,” Benson said.
Hursti seemed more concerned that the election officials were not aware the machine was missing in the first place. “It is shocking that only when we started asking, ‘Does it belong somewhere?’ Only after that, did they realize it had been stolen,” Hursti stated.
Michigan State Police spokesman Lt. Derrick Carroll told the Detroit News that an investigation is ongoing.