In this podcast, team leader Laura Scharr discusses election integrity in South Carolina and the fight for transparency for Cast Vote Records. Starts at 2 hours and 5 minutes.
Check out these two hand count methods for paper ballots
This consists of one ballot that is called out all at once in a “tally” method which is done by marking each choice with a marker.
Here is another method that uses counters and includes a live feed so that an instant replay can be done. This is done in pairs of candidates in each race so each ballot is tallied several times.
Clint Curtis and Beth B from Texas help demo the method they prefer which is easier on the eyes and perhaps results in fewer errors.
Both of these methods claim they can process 100 ballots with 20 races in about an hour.
Are our elections transparent? When do we demand transparency? Only when we lose?
In this video, Robert Borer, who ran for Secretary of State in Nebraska, demonstrates the pitfalls of the lack of transparency in our elections. A very entertaining demonstration.
Holly Kessler the Georgia state coordinator for the Citizens Defending Freedom joins SC Safe Elections to discuss progress in the great state of GA. Is the state red or blue? How are citizens reacting to the indictment of Trump? And what does she think will happen in the 2024 election?
Holly also tells us what she is doing to educate multiple counties over the state regarding a simple transparent hand-counting method for paper ballots. Paper, Please!
Gateway Pundit Releases story on Michigan Law Enforcement Suppressing major Voter Registration Scandal
HERE’S THE FULL POLICE REPORT FROM OCTOBER 2020 SHOWING MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD IN MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN.
Election Machine manufacturers now involved in your local FOIA requests?
This document was sent to jurisdictions regarding FOIA requests outlining what ES&S records and reports are allowed to be released.
Above is a PDF Document from ES&S Just released that was their communication to the jurisdictions using their software and systems. They broke down what can be freely released in FOIA requests. Any reports that the precincts and counties would print as part of the election they say can be FOIA’d and they have no objection to. What they do object to is the server system logs. They state they may divulge security or proprietary information.
Now for my input… I’ve been a server administrator for around 30 years and have looked at tons of logs. Error logs show what is broken, security logs show failed login attempts, and who failed to login (user ID would be shown), they don’t show passwords. What they do show are IP and web addresses, They also show paths and files that may be corrupt or missing. I can’t really understand why they feel the logs would show anything proprietary…unless it’s IP addresses or servers that it talks to are ON the internet. The systems are supposed to be isolated from tampering and NOT on the internet. If they need to communicate with maybe a network ballot scanner or a network printer, then I get that, but they should be on a private network, illustrated below.
Above I’ve illustrated what private IP address ranges look like. These addresses are reserved for private use only and DO NOT EXIST ON THE INTERNET. Class “A” are the 10.0.0.0 that most large corporations would use. Class “B” are the 172.16.0.0 that are used in small to large businesses. Then there is the Class “C” 192.168.0.0 addresses that most homes use.
If these Election Systems need network connections, then they should NEVER have a gateway address assigned. On your home network, the gateway is the connection to your router and the IP address assigned to the router. Usually 192.168.x.1 or 192.168.x.254. The “x” can be any number from 0-254, but usually “0” or “1”. This is the key to making your private network talk to the internet.
So, back to the Server logs, I want to see them. You show me a bunch of private addresses talking, I wouldn’t be too suspect, but if I were to see IP addresses talking to the internet, during times and dates of an election, then yes, I would question why it’s talking to the internet and to whom??
The systems are supposed to be setup, accuracy tests are run, certified when correct results obtained, then sealed until the election.
We had our election in a church. Once setup, machines are left in a large room, probably the banquet hall, and only locked at the outside door. So anyone with a key to the church could potentially have access.
Paper ballots could be driven from the county office each day by the clerks to each precinct. Actual poll books can be used again, printed 30 days before the election. If you’re not in the book, you don’t vote. One day voting, at the precinct level is manageable, you can always make more precincts. After the polls close, tally the votes on legal forms, copy them for the window posting, and the clerk takes them back to the county office in a sealed case for archiving. I would suggest that each poll manager gets a copy of results as a tool to validate the results of the polling location. A way to match what 10 people agreed to at the poll and what is recorded at the county (More Eyes).
Now… the Document is only 3 pages, but it concerns me that elections are supposed to be FREE to US citizens, FAIR for US citizens to access the all legal methods for voting, and… once the vote is cast, TRANSPARENT to all. But they are cast on machines that keep secrets under the guise of “Proprietary Software” and “Trade Secrets”… “TRADE SECRETS”, why are we using machines that we can’t see how they work. Voting uses simple math, paper ballots and a calculator could do what they do, why such a complex system??
I voted early in the 2020 election, stood in line at the early voting center on 10/29/2020 for 2 hours during tropical storm Zeta that was going on then, when I got to the door, they closed the voting center stating they lost power to the machines?? I still saw the lights in the building were on, and if they had paper ballots, I could have voted. They didn’t have backup ballots, so we had to go to the next voting center, wait 2 more hours, and then voted. At this point, I was no longer a fan of the machines. Machines are only as good as the people that program them, and the people that run them. Then I question is everyone went to the second location, or just gave up and went home?
I’m a poll manager, I can see how they provide a service, and how it’s so easy to let machines do all the work, but I also see that at the precinct level, it’s entirely feasible for hand cast paper ballots. We had 10 poll managers and a clerk at our poll, that would have been entirely manageable to count paper ballots, ~150 ballots each would be no problem. Machines and Algorithms are not the friends to your freedom and voting rights. Instead of the people controlling the counting… A room full of programmers can control the politics of a nation… let that sink in!
This piece is based on 3 years of experience trying to peek behind the curtain to obtain facts about how our elections are conducted. Friends have tried FOIA’s and have been told they don’t have or can’t have any proof that our elections are being run in an open and transparent matter. We can have reports that the election server generates, and if you can take a picture of the tape printed out at each precinct, that is about as close to transparent as they will allow. If you want to see the numbers, they will refer you to the scvotes.gov, that silently forwards you to SCYTL to see the reports.
(https://www.enr-scvotes.org/SC/106502/Web02-state.277845/#/?undefined will send you to the same page here
https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/SC/106502/Web02-state.277845/#/?undefined ).
South Carolina only operates the machines, that hide how they count the vote, with no ability to actually confirm/audit the vote from the physical to the digital. The cast vote records would provide some of that transparency, the digital would be matched to the physical ballot.
Arkansas has the exact same system that we have, and have the ability to provide the CVR, and have done so when FOIA’d. If the systems were truly honest, wouldn’t you shout it from the rooftops and want everyone to see your marvelous system??!! Instead we are met with denial, lawfare, refusal to comply, of just flat out not understanding that the law says they have to do it. It’s come to this, we see the establishment for what it is, and they are fighting it every step of the way… we continue to endure!
Election Integrity is a bipartisan issue
In this engaging conversation SCSE team leader Laura Scharr sits down with Gregg “Marcel” Dixon to discuss election integrity in South Carolina. Marcel is a Democrat who ran against Jim Clyburn to address issues in the black community that he saw as a teacher in his community.
Although Marcel and Laura are from different sides of the political spectrum there were many issues where they aligned—namely one day of voting with paper ballots and Voter ID and perhaps getting rid of the party system. This is a must see.
For more information on a paper ballot system see https://mockcountytx.us/election-results
In the news
We had some good national press recently regarding our CVR lawsuit.
Please check out these links
Gateway Pundit- South Carolina Safe Elections needs help fighting legal battle
This article includes an interview with Dr. Daugherity on Brannon Howse’s show.
American Revival Press- Freedom of Information Act is not respected in South Carolina
FOIA law not being respected in SC
Here is an article regarding our CVR lawsuit as well as an interview Laura and Dr. Walter Daugherity recently did with Mike Lindell and Brannon Howse.
Start at 10:25
https://frankspeech.com/video/mike-lindell-makes-world-wide-headlines-over-fake-news-story
CVR 101
For those of you who still want to better understand what a Cast Vote Record is here are the basics. It is actually very simple.
What is a Cast Vote Record (CVR)?
From the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) manual Nov 2019: A CVR is an electronic record of a voter’s selections, with usually one CVR created per sheet (page) of a ballot. Election results are produced by tabulating the collection of CVRs, and audits can be done by comparisons of the paper ballots or paper records of voter selections against the CVRs.
The CVR (Cast Vote Record) consists of several components: the ballot images aka the (CVRi), the information summarized from each ballot the (CVRc), and the database/spreadsheet of all ballots (in relative order, not the exact order as it is randomized in batches of 100 or 200).
Here is a sample of each:
Here is another sample of the CVR spreadsheet from Arkansas
There are many complex operations performed by voting devices when voters submit their paper ballots to be scanned. These operations are mostly invisible to voters but are necessary to determine whether contest selections have been marked adequately and whether voter intent is reflected by what is marked on the ballot. Thus, the CVR is an important audit tool that provides transparency to an otherwise opaque process. It is a way we can determine what the progression of the vote is inside the tabulator.
Our current system in SC focuses on total end count but is this truly sufficient? If you were to audit a bank account would you look at just the end balance on the statement? Of course not. You would want to examine all flows in and out of the account over a certain time period. This is essentially what a CVR report accomplishes.
This data is helpful to look for anomalies and irregularities. Note also that since batches of records (not the entire database) of the CVR are randomized it is near impossible to determine who voted at a specific time. Furthermore, there is an ability for write ins and areas where there are only a few voters with certain unique ballot styles to be filtered out to further ensure that no ballot can be tied back to a voter.
CVRs are a common audit tool for elections that have been around since the mid-2000s. They were meant for election officials and the public alike to verify the vote accuracy.
The CVRs contain all or some of the following fields. (Fields marked with an asterisk are strongly desired)
*CVR Number
*Tabulator ID
* Counting Group (or other name – this tells how the vote was cast)
Batch ID
*Precinct ID
Ballot Type
What does NOT appear in a Cast Vote Record is any information which would identify the voter.
They contain, at a minimum, the specific candidates or races which were counted, and the selections chosen by a voter.
The vendors Dominion Voting Systems, Clear Ballot, and Election Systems & Software can produce a Cast Vote Record in one or several text CSV (Comma Separated Variable length) files, which contain the records of one ballot per line. This file is sometimes converted to an Excel Spreadsheet format for transmission to the public.
The bottom line is that CVRs provide essential information about our elections that allow us to better understand how our vote is counted. Our SC Constitution states “our votes must be cast in secret but not counted in secret.” The value of providing public access to these reports outweighs the concerns of “privacy.” After our votes are cast they are no longer private and there is no way to tie these ballots to a voter.
Our judicial and legislative branch needs to do the right thing and improve transparency of the election process. There is a reason they call the FOIA law the Sunshine law. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Poll show majority of Americans are election deniers
Mark Mitchell presents a historical view of polling on election integrity issues on youtube. It is a great video.
Here is a summary of the findings:
As the pandemic was emerging in January of 2020, Rasmussen asked likely voters “Are American elections fair to voters,” and 50% said yes. They also asked, “Does the federal government today have the consent of the governed?” Only 26% said yes.
As COVID hit hard (April 14-15) people favored mail in ballots but 58% of people were concerned with the increased risk of fraud.
In October of 2020, their poll indicated that 59% of people did not think that photo IDs discriminated against voters.
Rasmussen was surprised by the large margin Biden won by.
In December of 2020 only 36% thought the court challenges would result in Trump’s reelection; at that point most people didn’t believe in the fraud (43%). There were vast differences in R versus D results. Post January 21, 57% thought Biden won the election fairly but 34% said no. Post-election, 42% thought the mail in ballots led to unprecedented fraud. (Feb 2021)
60% of likely voters said that it is more important to make sure there is no cheating in elections as opposed to making it easier for people to vote (37%); this was more skewed to Republicans; independents were closer on this issue to Republicans
In April 21 51% of likely voters believed there was cheating in the 2020 election. This number has risen as the latest poll shows 62% believe there was cheating. Clearly public sentiment is changing based on the results of the midterms particularly AZ. People didn’t lose interest in this topic over time!
55% of likely voters support audits of election results in June 2021. This was horrifying to the pollster—why not 100%. Would you fly on an airline that didn’t have quality audits?
61% of likely voters believe that election reform must happen in swing states (June 21)
90% felt it was important to prevent cheating in elections (August 21) This was high across the board for all party affiliations. This also was high in Dec of 21. By Dec of 2021, 59% of likely voters believed that cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election 41% of Democrats believed this as well. Their concerns about fraud had increased. The latest poll stated 62% believed there was cheating.
74% believed in requiring a photo ID so this result had a large swing from Oct of 2020. Concern about cheating was a growing concern and photo IDs were increasing in favor.
People were vehemently against “zuck bucks,” even the Democrats. 70% think that his influence was a bad thing—62% of Dems agreed with that.