Starlink and the 2024 election
Lasers from
space.
Where did this start?
- anomaly in the Matrix
- 10,000 lasers in space
- not a piece that they’ll see on the chessboard
yeah I knew hours ago that Trump won, my team has the best real-time data anywhere
“Vaporize the opponent’s king with lasers from space”
What does the hardware do?
Starlink satellites are cell towers in space.
Each Direct to Cell satellite carries an LTE modem, and phones connect to it exactly as they connect to a tower on the ground. Laser links relay the traffic across the constellation, through Starlink’s own core network, and into T‑Mobile’s network, Starlink’s US carrier partner.
Whoever runs the tower sees the traffic.
A phone trusts the tower it connects to, and everything it sends passes through that tower and the network behind it. That is why US law requires carriers to build interception into their networks, and why police use fake towers, called cell‑site simulators or stingrays, to pull location, identifiers, and unencrypted calls, texts and some data from every phone that attaches. A Direct to Cell satellite is a tower SpaceX controls, and its traffic crosses SpaceX’s core before T‑Mobile’s network ever sees it.
Wisconsin put cellular modems inside ballot scanners.
The ES&S DS200 is the scanner a voter feeds a paper ballot into. Wisconsin approved a DS200 configuration with an internal cellular modem so precincts can transmit results over the mobile network on election night, and tested it on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. ES&S systems run in 30 Wisconsin counties. The records do not name T‑Mobile or say which machines carried modems in November 2024.
Dominion’s battery backups can be run over a network.
Tripp Lite is a Chicago company that makes battery backups, the UPS units that keep a computer running through a power cut. Dominion’s 2023 test report lists two Tripp Lite models among seven approved for its voting systems. Tripp Lite’s management card lets a UPS be controlled over a web page, SSH, Telnet or SNMP from anywhere on the network, and its data cable carries commands in both directions to the machine it protects. Two published flaws, one scored 9.1 of 10, let an attacker on the network take control of the device without a password. The card connects by Ethernet, and the record does not name a county that bought either Tripp Lite model.
Why did these pieces look connected?
Tripp Lite’s sale became a $1.6 billion gift to Leonard Leo’s nonprofit.
- Barre SeidTripp Lite owner
- gave Tripp Lite to
- Marble Freedom TrustLeonard Leo, chair
- sold for $1.65B · 2021
- Eatonnew owner
What if the results came first?
If false preliminary totals were sent first, BallotProof’s code could be adapted to make ballot images match them. BallotProof generated synthetic test ballots from templates and randomized marks. One of its creators was on the DOGE team.
What would have to be true?
Direct to Cell reached a modem inside a ballot scanner on election night, and someone altered the count.
- DocumentedDirect to Cell routes LTE traffic
- DocumentedDS200 supports a cellular modem
- UnverifiedA compatible modem or another network path was active
- UnverifiedFalse preliminary results were transmitted and accepted
- UnverifiedStored digital ballot images were changed to match
- UnverifiedPhysical paper ballots were separately changed to match
CISA found no evidence of malicious activity affecting the vote.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election”
Source index
- Musk on XElon Musk on X: “Vaporize the opponent’s king with lasers from space”
- Futurism, May 21Elon Musk’s Ex Says He Bragged About 10,000 Lasers in Orbit That Are “Not a Piece They’ll See on the Chess Board”
- TMZ videoElon Musk’s Ex Ashley St. Clair Makes Explosive Election Claims, Sources Deny (video, 4 min 25 s, with TMZ’s transcript)
- TMZElon Musk's Ex Ashley St. Clair Makes Wild Claims About His Role in Election, Source Denies
- SpaceX on X, May 2024SpaceX on X: first video call between unmodified phones over Starlink Direct to Cell
- PCMagSpaceX Demos Cellular Starlink Tech Powering Video Call Between Phones
- Starlink technical noteSpaceX Sends First Text Messages via Its Newly Launched Direct to Cell Satellites
- Starlink noticeStarlink Direct to Cell Service Now Available
- FCC orderOrder and Authorization, DA 24-1193 (SpaceX Gen2 / Supplemental Coverage from Space)
- ReutersUS lets Starlink provide direct-to-cell coverage for hurricane-hit areas
- Spaceflight Now, Oct. 30SpaceX closes in on Direct to Cell Starlink constellation completion
- Wisconsin systems mapWisconsin Voting Systems Hub
- Wisconsin modem memoPetition for Approval of Electronic Voting Systems EVS 5.2.0.0 and EVS 5.3.0.0
- Test reportTest Report: Dominion Voting Systems Democracy Suite 5.17S
- Verified VotingWhat’s This Rumor about Rockland County?
- DatasheetWEBCARDLXE Network Management Card for Select UPS Systems, TAA
- S3M manualOwner’s Manual, SmartOnline S3M 3-Phase UPS Systems (S3M10K-S3M20K), §7.3-7.4 USB and RS-232 Communication Port
- NVD 2019CVE-2019-16261
- NYTAn Unusual $1.6 Billion Donation Bolsters Conservatives
- ProPublica, Aug. 2022How a Secretive Billionaire Handed His Fortune to the Architect of the Right-Wing Takeover of the Courts
- GitHubDevrathIyer/ballotproof
- DevpostBallotProof (HackGT 7 submission)
- WiredThe Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover
- Boston.comHarvard senior, Northeastern first-year student reportedly among Musk’s DOGE team
- Palo Alto OnlineGunn High grad part of Musk’s effort to control federal spending
- The RecordTop US cyber official says ‘no evidence of malicious activity’ impacting election
- Musk on X, June 2025Elon Musk on X: "Without me, Trump would have lost the election…"
- AxiosMusk goes nuclear: "Without me, Trump would have lost the election"
- CNNElon Musk spent more than $290 million on the 2024 election, year-end FEC filings show
- CVE.orgCVE-2026-22620
- NVD 2026CVE-2026-22620
- IONIXCVE-2026-22620: Authentication bypass in Eaton Tripp Lite PADM