Tell HN: The Threat to US Citizen's ID / Voting Is Private Services
8 comments
If I can light a cigar and talk like Columbo for a minute, the thing I can't get out of my mind is that a competent professional would do something like this:
If a competent professional sets it up blind (no information whatsoever disclosed to the challengee) to capture the entire entered telephone number that is because there is an explicit desire to capture all of the entered data.
FILL IN THE BLANKS:
___-XXX-XX09 [don't know]
XXX-_X_-3X4X [don't know]
XXX-XXX-01__ [don't know]
2XX-___-XX8X [don't know]
If a competent professional sets it up blind (no information whatsoever disclosed to the challengee) to capture the entire entered telephone number that is because there is an explicit desire to capture all of the entered data.
I am in exactly the same spot you're in. I have two phone numbers available to me and neither is accepted. However, I have a different take on it: Hanlon's Razor says "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." This being the federal government in 2026, I think it's more likely that bureaucratic incompetence at play.
I believe that the staff are competent professionals. I don't believe that it's possible for Brawndo swigging morons to operate a single signon service for the United States federal government for multiple years, over multiple presidential administrations, without inducing a spontaneous self-immolation of mushroom cloud proportions (thinking of a certain poorly secured warehouse full of ammonium nitrate in Lebanon).
Do they have morals, and are those morals aligned with patriotic allegiance to the USA? Asking for a friend.
Do they have morals, and are those morals aligned with patriotic allegiance to the USA? Asking for a friend.
I don't know if you read the full post at http://consulting.m3047.net/dubai-letters/voter-id-industry-...
I will take a certain level of incompetence over outsourcing adjudication (and the priors for that, data) to private industry. Outsourcing isn't going to eliminate incompetence it just moves it beyond petitioning for redress as a citizen. And a few other things.
I will take a certain level of incompetence over outsourcing adjudication (and the priors for that, data) to private industry. Outsourcing isn't going to eliminate incompetence it just moves it beyond petitioning for redress as a citizen. And a few other things.
Sometimes just have to show up in person.
Can't. Need to print out a doc to take with me so the gubmint can validate my gubmint ID. They won't do it without the doc. They won't give me the doc because they don't like my phone.
That sucks. What about the DMV? Maybe their systems correlate data.
This validation is for a specific purpose. In fact, and oddly enough, the federal govt (in its manifestation as the Post Office [0]) wants to validate my STATE id, not my federal ID. I think there's a barcode that they scan after validating it, but I am speculating since they won't give me the doc I need to take with me! Taking it to DMV wouldn't do any good.
This started because there was an option to do [black box process] with a phone. "But you can always show up in person (snerk snerk)." (it's a web site, it doesn't really talk in the first person or say "snerk") "Fine, I'll show up in person." "Alright, you'll need to print a document first... hang on a moment... give us your phone number. Oh sorry [black box process] says to tell you we don't recognize your phone, and we can't give you the doc." That's the gist of it. The black box process has been jacked into the process at the very beginning of the kill chain.
I've got to renew my drivers license in the next two months, we'll see how things go at the DMV.
[0] The Post Office is where I've gone to renew my passport.
This started because there was an option to do [black box process] with a phone. "But you can always show up in person (snerk snerk)." (it's a web site, it doesn't really talk in the first person or say "snerk") "Fine, I'll show up in person." "Alright, you'll need to print a document first... hang on a moment... give us your phone number. Oh sorry [black box process] says to tell you we don't recognize your phone, and we can't give you the doc." That's the gist of it. The black box process has been jacked into the process at the very beginning of the kill chain.
I've got to renew my drivers license in the next two months, we'll see how things go at the DMV.
[0] The Post Office is where I've gone to renew my passport.
This post has been condensed due to character limitations on HN posts.
[...]
What's happening is that private entities are curating the databases and operating automated adjudication services which the government contracts to utilize. "But it's little things, administrative things." Yeah maybe, but look where they are in the kill chain. During approximately the week surrounding 15-May-2026 I was denied the "privilege" of scheduling an appointment at the United States Post Office by one of these "administrative things" and there is no particular reason to think that the government runs this service themselves, relying entirely on compute and data which they control. So THIS is how the woodpecker destroys civilization; or at least our representative democracy. There is no appeal. There is no overt denial at the time of service either.
Here's how it works in real life:
The United States federal government operates Login.Gov, a single signon service for federal agencies and their customers. I went to Login.Gov to associate an additional federal agency's web service with my existing account. This agency wanted to reverify my identity, so there were instructions to supply the identification code on a picture ID and some other information and then they'd send me a document to print out with a barcode on it and then I was instructed to take that to the Post Office where it would be adjudicated, and underpants or something. Oh but one more thing. Before we give you that document to print out, can you give us a phone number? It has to be one we know about... but we're not going to tell you anything about the one we want you to tell us about. This occurs AFTER all personally identifying information required to populate the form has been collected. I entered the three phone numbers which I use or pay for, and none of them matched. "Try again!"
No phone number match, therefore no ability to complete the work to make an appointment at the Post Office for the actual adjudication of my id.
I have been disenfranchised, severed from my government.
Is there anyone on the planet who hasn't received a spam at some point saying "You have won $100, you just need to complete this survey to receive it." If you're foolish enough to take the survey, it never ends it just keeps asking questions. Forever. (And uses your computer to do other things in the background. If it suckas you deep enough into sunk cost fallacy, it'll probably ask you to tell it the phone number it's thinking about, your dog's name, your grandma's gay biker name...) I'd like to say "you've had your fun, it's time to come clean" but there's nobody to say it to. Oh well, I said it.
Normally if consumer information is utilized to deny some contract or authorization with financial implications, the law requires the entity which issued the denial to provide the identity of the service they relied on. Furthermore the law requires the service provider to allow you to review the information concerning you which they have on file. But there was no denial; and whether the decision has financial impact is debatable. Unsurprisingly and disappointingly Login.Gov does not provide this information. Lacking the ability to review the information, I can only say that the phone numbers are ALLEGEDLY unrecognized. The truth is, based on several interactions, that Login.Gov customer support doesn't know who the data provider(s) or processors are (but they'll eagerly make up plausible sounding things).
There is no appeal or redress.
[...]
I would be happy to discuss this further with somebody at Login.Gov or GSAIG who has actual authority.
Canonical full original version is here: http://consulting.m3047.net/dubai-letters/voter-id-industry-capture.html I've posted it here as completely as possible because I welcome discussion / questions and I don't want it to "disappear".