Who is Stephen Spoonamore?

Rolfe posted a video featuring a man named Stephen Spoonamore telling us how easily electronic voting machines can be rigged. If I look up articles on Spoonamore they all tell me that he is a GOP insider and world renowned expert in cyber security. Someone gave me reasons to doubt this, so I did some independent fact checking.

This supposed GOP insider donated a fairly hefty chunk of change to Howard Dean back in 2003. See for yourself via NewsMeat.

But let's go straight to the source! Go check out Stephen Spoonamore's LinkIn page. What are these places he has listed? His campaign donations to Dean have him associated with a place called DV Dojo. That was 2003. DV Dojo is a film school. He claims to have 20 years experience in technology when talking about electronic voting machines. Apparently he considers teaching miniDV and 16mm film 'technology'. A looser definition than I would expect, but I've done worse.

Then there is Duos Technologies. There he was Chief Technology Officer. What does Duos do?

Duos Technologies Inc., headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, provides a broad range of sophisticated technology solutions with an emphasis on Homeland Security.

So maybe he knows a little something about tech. Maybe.

What about Cybrinth? That one has a cool name.

Cybrinth, founded by global leaders in cyber-policy, countermeasures and operations. Working to create living and layered data custody and security systems. Training leadership to succeed and organizations to become knowledge dominant, data-secure and e-hygienic.

Consultants. Consultants are the people you pay to come in and tell you what it is you should do and that you should buy software and hardware through them rather than going directly to the source that will charge you half as much. In other words, they talk fancy and know how to Google. Maybe this firm was more than that. And does involve tech.

That brings us to his most recent employer, Global Strategic Partners.

Global Strategic Partners prides itself on helping our clients articulate their goals, charting a course which navigates them from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow and beyond. By building on the decades of private, public, and non-profit experience of our principals, GSP is able to develop high-impact projects that support our client’s goals.

Let's be nice and sparkling clear here. Couldn't elementary school crossing guards say almost the exact same thing? Jesus Fucking Christ! Yet another consulting firm.

Based on what I've found today, it would appear that Spoonamore played around with a little digital video, grasped how easy it was to fool people who don't understand technology, and became a consultant which is better known in its abbreviated form, con man. How else does one go from film school and Howard Dean contributor to world renowned information technology professional and GOP insider in just 5 years?

Just guessing.

So while it still seems obvious that the 2004 election was stolen via electronic voting machines, Spoonamore is not going to be the smoking gun in this case.