Did Anonymous Save American Democracy?

Still wondering why every Republican got the election results so wrong? Could it be that they were counting on a repeat of 2004, when hacked voting machines flipped Ohio into George Bush's column and changed the result of the election? Does American have Anonymous to thank for the fact that we still have a democracy? We may never know for sure, but it's certainly a better explanation than "dozens of black people turning up to vote", isn't it?

If this is true, Anonymous deserves a medal.

Article excerpt follows:

Anonymous Saved The Election?
2012/11/17
By Nathaniel Downes

Through the website Wonkette today, the hacker collective Anonymous released a statement on the election, and the content of the statement is an eye opener:

Anon Rove Letter

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/images/Anon_Rove_Letter.pdf

While some might consider this a random letter, or a jump to claim responsibility, if you step back and study the letter carefully a very clear message comes out.

They cite specific numbers. They state precisely how many tunnels are there. They cite how many passwords were attempted. But, there are key words which look innocent but, to a computer engineer, are very much a trigger.

These phrases are:

We noticed these tunnels were strategically placed to allow for tunnel rats to race to the sewer servers from three different states.

Now, to a normal person a rat is just that: a furry animal or a slang term for a scoundrel. But to a computer person, a rat is something radically different, a r.a.t. hack. The Remote Administration Tool hack is a method of remotely accessing a machine as if it were local. Using such a hack, you would have full access to the machine, at a level someone physically at the machine may not have. A "sewer server" is a term used to denote a hack over a secured tunnel, known as a Secured SHell (SSH), using a form of encryption designed to make it appear to be innocent background traffic.

This is not some general discussion, making claims in order to claim. They have released clear and specific details on what exactly was done, information which the people behind Orca can verify. Even more telling, however, is the name the group used for their denial of service attack:

The Great Oz

"Oz" refers to the land in the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz; more currently, it refers to the television show Oz,which is about a prison. And the actions the group took was to attempt to hack the election into jail, locking it away. It broke, absolutely. We reported on the failures of Orca and its public face earlier. What Anonymous is claiming is that Orca's public face was a farce, a lie. It was not to coordinate poll challengers so much as to steal the election.

The little cherry on top, however, is the hint that Anonymous not only blocked the operation, but kept copies of the code and data from Orca and are planning on leaking it to wikilinks. If and when this happens, you know AI will be there.