Prince William drops PollChief software after tech exec’s arrest, ties to China, 2020 Election suspicion

Prince William County stopped using voting software following the arrest of a Chinese tech executive who has come under suspicion of identity theft and tied to problems during the 2020 General Election.

According to an email from the Prince William County Office of Elections, obtained by Potomac Local News, the county had used a cloud-based Web interface called PollChief developed by tech firm Konnech that manages election officer data. Under our contract, the company’s data servers were stated to be in the U.S., in Michigan and California.

Konnech Corporation CEO Eugene Yu was taken into custody Tuesday, October 4, following an investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office on suspicion of theft of personal identifying information. Instead of housing data in the U.S., investigators believe it was sent to China.

Yu has reportedly been the focus of those who have raised concerns about voting fraud, particularly in the 2020 elections. However, the office said the Yu investigation is concerned solely with the personal identifying information of election workers.

In the email, Prince William County officials stressed PollChief is not software loaded on a computer but is a website staffers use.

PollChief houses only election officer information, including names, addresses, birthdays, and contact information, and contains no financial data or social security numbers.

PollChief is not connected to the state voter registration system or voting equipment, the office states.

The announcement comes as the county’s General Registrar, Eric Olsen, announced he would resign following the General Election on November 8, 2022. Olsen has been in the job for about a year and cited health reasons for his resignation.

The resignation comes amid a push by the Prince William County Republican Committee to allow people from its handpicked list of would-be poll workers to serve as poll chiefs, who oversee the operations at polling places throughout the county.

Olsen chose to place two Democrats at about 12 polling places to serve as both Chief and Assistant Chief. According to Republican Committee Chairman Denny Daughtery, Olsen chose the poll chiefs based on their amount of prior election experience.

Meanwhile, the state has remained tight-lipped about corruption charges against Olsen’s predecessor, Michele White, who resigned as the county’s top elections officer in April 2021.

Olsen uncovered and reported to state authorities irregularities during the 2020 General Election. However, he said they weren’t enough to change the election outcome.