Elections software CEO arrested for allegedly stealing poll workers’ data

The founder and CEO of an elections software company is under arrest allegedly for stealing data on hundreds of Los Angeles County poll workers. The company Konnech won a contract with LA County for software to track election workers’ schedules, training, payroll and communications. Konnech was required to keep the data in the United States and only provide access to citizens and permanent residents.

They’re now accused of storing the data on Chinese servers.

The CEO Eugene Yu was arrested on suspicion of theft of personal identifying information, while computer hard drives and other “digital evidence” were seized by investigators from the county district attorney’s office, according to the office, Yu has repeatedly denied keeping data outside of the U.S.

In a statement response, the company said they are continuing to ascertain the details of what they believe to be Mr. Yu’s wrongful detention. Konnech said any LA County poll worker data that Konnech may have possessed was provided by LA county, and therefore could not have been stolen. Yu was arrested in Michigan, but local prosecutors will seek his extradition to California.

Two days before the elections software CEO’s arrest, the New York Times described the allegations against Konnech as “conspiracy theories.” The paper reported that Konnech and Yu became the target of claims by election conspiracy theorists that the company had secret ties to the Chinese Communist Party and had supplied information on 2 million poll workers.

True the Vote is a conservative vote-monitoring organization whose stated objective is stopping voter fraud. In their own investigation that played a role in the county’s investigation, True the Vote accused the elections software CEO of these allegations well before his arrest. Konnech sued True the Vote. True the Vote Founder Catherine Engelbrecht released a statement after the arrest of Yu.

“Konnech was assisted by many reporters who unblinkingly accepted their now discredited claims as fact, and simply repeated them,” Engelbrecht said. “Election integrity should not be a partisan issue, nor should media try to suppress all conversation about it in a way that benefits one party. We will continue to report evidence of threats to our election process and work with law enforcement to ensure our elections are a secure space for all American voters.”