The countdown is on for the 2024 election. Now that many states have imposed early voting so many people wonder how and when they should vote. (SC added 14 days of early voting in the election bill of 2022; prior to that we had 1 day of voting except for 2020 where they had a temporary emergency 29 day early voting period). Furthermore, many “influencers” are giving advice that doesn’t make sense to those of us fighting for election integrity 24-7 for the last 4 years.
There are many options: vote early in person?, by absentee ballot?, on election day?
After studying this issue with election integrity experts for the past 4 years we have some answers for you.
In addition, please do the following prior to voting and consider helping ensure your vote counts by:
Check your registration status; you must be registered at least 30 days prior to the election
Vote in person on election day; confirm your precinct location beforehand (please refrain from voting early). In this must-see video, Laura and Rick from the Gold Standard Elections team discuss why.
Encourage your friends to vote; drive them to the polls
Have a neighborhood picnic for people who voted
Sign up with your political party to be a poll watcher
Observe the absentee ballot processing and tabulation
Attend your county logic and accuracy machine testing
Attend your county provisional hearing and canvassing/certification of the vote
Attend your county hand count audit of the results
The countdown is on for the 2024 election. Now that many states have imposed early voting so many people wonder how and when they should vote. (SC added 14 days of early voting in the election bill of 2022; prior to that we had 1 day of voting except for 2020 where they had a temporary emergency 29 day early voting period). Furthermore, many “influencers” are giving advice that doesn’t make sense to those of us fighting for election integrity 24-7 for the last 4 years.
There are many options: vote early in person?, by absentee ballot?, on election day?
After studying this issue with election integrity experts for the past 4 years we have some answers for you.
In addition, please do the following prior to voting and consider helping ensure your vote counts by:
Check your registration status; you must be registered at least 30 days prior to the election
Vote in person on election day; confirm your precinct location beforehand (please refrain from voting early). In this must-see video, Laura and Rick from the Gold Standard Elections team discuss why.
Encourage your friends to vote; drive them to the polls
Have a neighborhood picnic for people who voted
Sign up with your political party to be a poll watcher
Observe the absentee ballot processing and tabulation
Attend your county logic and accuracy machine testing
Attend your county provisional hearing and canvassing/certification of the vote
Attend your county hand count audit of the results
Rassmussen has polled ‘likely voters’ since the 2020 election and the results consistently show that most do not trust electronic voting systems. Notably, 62% believe that there will be cheating in the 2024 election. These results have increased over time, with Democrats and Independents in addition to Republicans increasingly concerned.
Recent incidents of cyber hacks on governmental systems only add to these concerns. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warn that the threat assessment of a cyber-attack on the 2024 election is “likely.”
Furthermore, the Crowdstrike incident in July not only affected airlines, hospitals, and businesses but it also affected early voting in the Arizona primary. Electronic poll books, which are connected to the internet were down, crippling two of the largest counties in the state. This issue potentially impacts all 50 states as they all have Albert Sensors which are used to detect malicious traffic in the counties, including election equipment. What effect did the Crowdstrike debacle have on the election infrastructure since these Albert Sensors supposedly run on servers that use Crowdstrike for endpoint security? Can we be assured that our systems weren’t affected? Inquiring minds what to know.
At the minimum, each county needs to have an emergency plan in place to mitigate any unforeseen events as well as to ensure that there is a smooth, uninterrupted vote for the 2024 election. People don’t trust these systems and these recent events only increase concerns over the accuracy of our vote count. There is a better way– a simple, efficient, and transparent method to count ballots. This method can be used as an alternative to machines or can be utilized in the event of an equipment failure or interruption of an electronic voting system. Furthermore, it is a great way to conduct hand-count audits.
Here is a link to the full Gold Standard report for conducting all phases of the election process (Voter Registration, Voter Validation, Marking and Counting, Reporting) to optimize transparency, security, verifiability, and accessibility of our elections.
The video below primarily focuses on the counting of the ballots which is only one part of the 3rd phase of the process, albeit a critical one. It explains the method and includes a quick video (3 minutes and 43 second) clip of someone calling out the names from the actual ballot images from the 2022 Treasurer’s race in Dodge County, WI. We run through a tally of 100 ballots (2 stacks of 50) including ballots from both the ES&S Express Vote Ballot Marking Device (BMD) as well as hand-marked ballots—not unlike your typical mail-in ballot.
You can follow along with this blank tally sheet to try this method yourself. For more info and materials go to uscase.org.
Ideally, maximizing accessibility for all legal, eligible voters is extremely important. Lack of trust unfortunately is a key reason people won’t vote, thus reducing participation in our elections. Trust will improve only if we can demonstrate secure, transparent, and verifiable elections. If voters have a firm belief in the above, then they will enthusiastically vote. Transparent elections, with ballots being counted by local registered voters at the precinct level, are the ultimate antidote to distrust of the system. It is the duty of our elected officials and election officers to have a plan in place should there be an interruption in our election infrastructure and they also need to focus on constant improvement of the processes and procedures as they stand today.
We hope you found this useful. Please comment on the Rumble video or email us at scsafeelections@zohomail.com or info@uscase.org. We can train you further virtually or in person.
Rassmussen has polled ‘likely voters’ since the 2020 election and the results consistently show that most do not trust electronic voting systems. Notably, 62% believe that there will be cheating in the 2024 election. These results have increased over time, with Democrats and Independents in addition to Republicans increasingly concerned.
Recent incidents of cyber hacks on governmental systems only add to these concerns. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warn that the threat assessment of a cyber-attack on the 2024 election is “likely.”
Furthermore, the Crowdstrike incident in July not only affected airlines, hospitals, and businesses but it also affected early voting in the Arizona primary. Electronic poll books, which are connected to the internet were down, crippling two of the largest counties in the state. This issue potentially impacts all 50 states as they all have Albert Sensors which are used to detect malicious traffic in the counties, including election equipment. What effect did the Crowdstrike debacle have on the election infrastructure since these Albert Sensors supposedly run on servers that use Crowdstrike for endpoint security? Can we be assured that our systems weren’t affected? Inquiring minds what to know.
At the minimum, each county needs to have an emergency plan in place to mitigate any unforeseen events as well as to ensure that there is a smooth, uninterrupted vote for the 2024 election. People don’t trust these systems and these recent events only increase concerns over the accuracy of our vote count. There is a better way– a simple, efficient, and transparent method to count ballots. This method can be used as an alternative to machines or can be utilized in the event of an equipment failure or interruption of an electronic voting system. Furthermore, it is a great way to conduct hand-count audits.
Here is a link to the full Gold Standard report for conducting all phases of the election process (Voter Registration, Voter Validation, Marking and Counting, Reporting) to optimize transparency, security, verifiability, and accessibility of our elections.
The video below primarily focuses on the counting of the ballots which is only one part of the 3rd phase of the process, albeit a critical one. It explains the method and includes a quick video (3 minutes and 43 second) clip of someone calling out the names from the actual ballot images from the 2022 Treasurer’s race in Dodge County, WI. We run through a tally of 100 ballots (2 stacks of 50) including ballots from both the ES&S Express Vote Ballot Marking Device (BMD) as well as hand-marked ballots—not unlike your typical mail-in ballot.
You can follow along with this blank tally sheet to try this method yourself. For more info and materials go to uscase.org.
Ideally, maximizing accessibility for all legal, eligible voters is extremely important. Lack of trust unfortunately is a key reason people won’t vote, thus reducing participation in our elections. Trust will improve only if we can demonstrate secure, transparent, and verifiable elections. If voters have a firm belief in the above, then they will enthusiastically vote. Transparent elections, with ballots being counted by local registered voters at the precinct level, are the ultimate antidote to distrust of the system. It is the duty of our elected officials and election officers to have a plan in place should there be an interruption in our election infrastructure and they also need to focus on constant improvement of the processes and procedures as they stand today.
We hope you found this useful. Please comment on the Rumble video or email us at scsafeelections@zohomail.com or info@uscase.org. We can train you further virtually or in person.
Article II § 1 of the South Carolina Constitution states “All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, but the ballots shall not be counted in secret.” We have been assured by the elections office that we can have confidence that the machines can be trusted, even though the process is not transparent. They claim we can check our “paper” ballots for accuracy but only a small percentage of voters do; and even though they can view their ballot selections, the ballots are read via a barcode at the top. Voters can’t read barcode and aren’t allowed to take pictures in the polling location.
Another way our vote is verified is for the counties to conduct hand count audits open to the public. This process, given my own personal experience, leaves much to be desired. Here are my observations.
In the last primary election, I attended the hand count audit at The Office of Voter Registration and Elections of Charleston County. The public notice said “The purpose of a hand-count audit is to ensure the number of ballots cast was accurately recorded by the tabulation device.” Additionally, the audit ensures that the number of votes cast for a particular candidate was accurately recorded by the tabulation device.’
The audited precincts and contests, however, are selected by the State Election Commission (SEC). The SEC does not use random sampling to determine which precincts and races to audit. I called the SEC on July 2, 2024 to find out the specific process they use to select the precincts and races to be audited. I was told they would have to get permission to send the formula to me and would get back to me. I am still waiting.
The day of the audit when the counting started, I attempted to move up closer to the table where the staff was performing the audit in order to view the count. I was told I could watch the process, not the count. On the public notice it said, ‘To ensure secrecy of the ballot, photography/videography is prohibited during hand-count audits.’ If I cannot see the ballot nor take a photograph of the ballot because I could somehow identify the ballot’s voter, our ballots are not cast in “secret” as they claim. This actually would violate federal and state law.
In a recent court case, the SEC claimed they could not give the cast vote records (CVRs) because that information would allow those receiving that information to identify the voter. It is very clear that neither the SEC nor the election office believe our votes are cast in secret. Nor are they willing to have any transparency in the ballot counting. The primary issue is that there is a distinct difference in the casting of the vote versus the counting of the vote. As stated at the beginning of this article, our constitution is quite clear that the votes “shall not be counted in secret.” If our current system potentially allows people to identify a voter, that needs to change. Furthermore, we need to design a system and process that allows for the public count that is fully transparent. Voters and candidates deserve to know that their vote was counted correctly and is verifiable. This would inspire trust, which we are sorely lacking now. If voting by machines fails to allow a secret ballot, then we need to stop using them.
Here is one simple thing you can do. Because of the importance of the verifiability of the next election, please call your legislator and demand that the hand count audit after the election includes a public verified random selection of the races to be audited and that the count be done with transparency such that the public can have full view of the ballots.
Article II § 1 of the South Carolina Constitution states “All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, but the ballots shall not be counted in secret.” We have been assured by the elections office that we can have confidence that the machines can be trusted, even though the process is not transparent. They claim we can check our “paper” ballots for accuracy but only a small percentage of voters do; and even though they can view their ballot selections, the ballots are read via a barcode at the top. Voters can’t read barcode and aren’t allowed to take pictures in the polling location.
Another way our vote is verified is for the counties to conduct hand count audits open to the public. This process, given my own personal experience, leaves much to be desired. Here are my observations.
In the last primary election, I attended the hand count audit at The Office of Voter Registration and Elections of Charleston County. The public notice said “The purpose of a hand-count audit is to ensure the number of ballots cast was accurately recorded by the tabulation device.” Additionally, the audit ensures that the number of votes cast for a particular candidate was accurately recorded by the tabulation device.’
The audited precincts and contests, however, are selected by the State Election Commission (SEC). The SEC does not use random sampling to determine which precincts and races to audit. I called the SEC on July 2, 2024 to find out the specific process they use to select the precincts and races to be audited. I was told they would have to get permission to send the formula to me and would get back to me. I am still waiting.
The day of the audit when the counting started, I attempted to move up closer to the table where the staff was performing the audit in order to view the count. I was told I could watch the process, not the count. On the public notice it said, ‘To ensure secrecy of the ballot, photography/videography is prohibited during hand-count audits.’ If I cannot see the ballot nor take a photograph of the ballot because I could somehow identify the ballot’s voter, our ballots are not cast in “secret” as they claim. This actually would violate federal and state law.
In a recent court case, the SEC claimed they could not give the cast vote records (CVRs) because that information would allow those receiving that information to identify the voter. It is very clear that neither the SEC nor the election office believe our votes are cast in secret. Nor are they willing to have any transparency in the ballot counting. The primary issue is that there is a distinct difference in the casting of the vote versus the counting of the vote. As stated at the beginning of this article, our constitution is quite clear that the votes “shall not be counted in secret.” If our current system potentially allows people to identify a voter, that needs to change. Furthermore, we need to design a system and process that allows for the public count that is fully transparent. Voters and candidates deserve to know that their vote was counted correctly and is verifiable. This would inspire trust, which we are sorely lacking now. If voting by machines fails to allow a secret ballot, then we need to stop using them.
Here is one simple thing you can do. Because of the importance of the verifiability of the next election, please call your legislator and demand that the hand count audit after the election includes a public verified random selection of the races to be audited and that the count be done with transparency such that the public can have full view of the ballots.
