Some years later, I wrote up my recollections of Clipper, key escrow, and what we now know as "Crypto War I" in an invited talk at ACSAC 2011: www.mattblaze.org/papers/escro...
My finished photo here: www.flickr.com/photos/mattb... I took the eclipse as an opportunity for lanscape photography rather than astrophotography. But eclipses as best experienced firsthand, with all the senses.
Anyway, please be extra nice to election officials. They have an essential job that's difficult under even the best circumstances, but right now they're being forced to put up with more bullshit than anyone should have to see in a lifetime.
This is definitely consistent with my experience with these communities. You can't engage with them on substantively improving elections, because that's not what they're actually concerned about. You end up talking across purposes.
The lesson here seems to be that election denial, at least in these circles, has little to do with any actual demands for improving election integrity, but is more a proxy for a less focused, but very extreme, dissatisfaction with and mistrust of government generally.
Tellingly, there were no demands for postelection Risk Limiting Audits or other improvements that could actually meaningfully improve the security of (and confidence in) elections. It was just relentless objections to EVERYTHING, mixed with unspecified anger and mistrust.
There ARE voting technologies, such as DRE machines, that ARE inherently insecure. But the complaints here had nothing to do with actual security problems or principles. They objected to mail-in voting with paper (a process that has long existed in every state). They objected to voting centers. Etc.
Very presidential.
I believe my post is the first complete public reveal of the Orphan Annie and Captain Midnight badge codes. So you no longer any need to save your boxtops to get the official badges and decode the messages.
A very interesting document, especially in how exhaustive it is in surveying the entire IC and law enforcement world for any credible evidence that would support a belief that the election was compromised.