Flaw in Right-Wing 'Election Integrity' App Exposes Voter-Suppression Plan and User Data

A bug WIRED discovered in True the Vote's VoteAlert app revealed user information—and an election worker who wrote about carrying out an illegal voter-suppression scheme.

An app developed by the right-wing nonprofit True the Vote to crowdsource claims of voter fraud contained a security flaw that exposed the email addresses of all users who posted or commented on the platform, along with other information.

The vulnerability, which has since been patched, exposed a California election officer who used the app to post about her racist and illegal scheme to demand IDs from certain voters based on perceived citizenship status. California does not require voters to show identification in most cases. Election officials are now investigating the incident, WIRED has learned.

The app, VoteAlert, is the latest initiative from True the Vote, a Texas-based nonprofit founded by Catherine Engelbrecht, a once-fringe right-wing figure who ...