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I attended a silent retreat at Mepkin Abbey in Monk’s Corner, SC for three days to disconnect from electronics and society in general so that I could decompress—no phone, no wireless, no talking, just quiet time in solitude with nature. The abbey is located on over 1,000 acres in an old plantation from the 1800s. Its beauty is timeless and indescribable. 

Among the gardens is a huge labyrinth of wildflowers and plants. The directions on the sign ask that you pace slowly through the maze and notice what thoughts bubble up.  I embraced this meditative exercise and entered the maze.

As I traversed the path, I noticed that the journey through this labyrinth was a metaphor for my personal journey the past few years fighting for election integrity.

I started out mindfully placing each step on the grass but suddenly thick brush would encroach the path requiring more effort on my part. In some areas, I had to move obstructive branches out of the way to move forward or take high steps to move across them.  At times I wondered if I was moving in the right direction, or alternatively, if I was retracing the same path I had already traveled. There was a sudden sense of being lost and disoriented.  

At one point I became impatient picking up the pace wondering how much longer this task would take.  It seemed longer than I had bargained for and I wondered if it was worth the effort.  Frustration had set in. And then fear. What if there were snakes in the grasses here? Or ticks?

I noticed the irony of the situation and the parallels to my life and I started to laugh. This exercise that was meant to be restorative was showing me the many sides of my personality and journey.

The frustration and fear melted into humor. If I believed that there would be snakes and other bugs that could hurt me, I might create that reality, so I cleared those thoughts from my mind as I tugged the long blades of grass out of my way. 

After what seemed like forever but was probably only about 15 to 20 minutes I wanted to give up. This was taking too long and I couldn’t seem to find out where the path ultimately led to the center.

I decided to leave the labyrinth to by jumping over the border that I could reassess the map and get an overhead view.  I needed the big picture perspective. What I realized was that I had jumped out just steps before I was going to reach the center. Ugh! So back I went to where I had jumped out and finished, finally reaching the center which had a clearing and a few benches.  I made it. 

How often do we become impatient during our journey of truth? We all want things to happen our way and on our timeline. But if we give up, we may miss a huge breakthrough just around the corner.  The labyrinth of life is not our design, but God’s. Only He knows the path. We need to trust in Him and cultivate faith, patience, fortitude, and a good sense of humor if we want to make it to the finish line.

Never give up! God has the plan and He wins.

Author: Jane P.

We are told that we have “paper ballots” that we can verify to confirm our vote, but do we really?

Our ballot is really a receipt, and not a good one at that.  The piece of paper has bar codes at the top, but a voter has no idea if that bar code reflects their intent.

See the comparison below where the current process is compared with a hand marked hand counted ballot.

Transparency and trust are greatly enhanced with the system on the right.

THE PEOPLE WANT PAPER  

The RNC passed the Resolution: URGING A “RETURN TO EXCELLENCE” IN AMERICAN VOTING AND ELECTIONS.   This resolution passed unanimously and addresses many key concerns most American voters have with our current election process.  SC Safe Elections is encouraged about this first step as it addresses many key issues with elections such as:

• Encouraging/maximizing participation
• Maintaining state not federal control of election law
• Ensuring swift and accurate results
• Keeping it local with easily accessible and geographically dispersed polling places
• Ensuring that only US citizens vote
• Providing a non-electronic option to voters
• Paper ballot systems that are auditable and voter-verifiable

Here is the full resolution:

South Carolina has already addressed some of these issues and concerns (we have laws that limit ballot harvesting and do not have universal mail in balloting). As the first in the South for the Democratic and Republican primary, we can be the gold standard for election excellence if we pass additional election integrity bills.  Over the next several weeks we will show specific ways in which we can reform our current system to ensure that our voters have the utmost confidence in our elections.

We encourage our state senators and representatives, governor, and State Election Commission to support three election integrity bills currently in the House Subcommittee—H. 4259, H. 4260, and H. 4261.  These bills will allow for:

• Establishing a pilot program of hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots
• Robust hand-count audits and forensic audits
• Eliminating early voting and electronic poll books (which are not certified) while reducing absentee balloting
• Giving full observation rights to every citizen to examine all phases of the election process
• Establishing rigorous chain of custody documentation and procedures for all system components
• Ensuring qualified electors have access to key audit documents and voter rolls at no charge

Since our state has a Republican controlled legislature as well as the governor’s seat our state should be eager to honor this resolution by passing bills that make elections trustworthy.  We will be evaluating our state elected officials on how each of them responds to these initiatives.

💥💥💥💥IMPORTANT ACTION ALERT!!!! 💥💥💥💥

Bill 150 passed in ’22 moved the needle in some instances but also took a few steps back especially by instituting two weeks of early voting. The 3 bills below focus on further enhancing SC election law so that the citizens of SC can trust elections again.

Here are the election bills that we want to support that Rob Harris and our group worked on. Of course, these are just a start and ideally we would like to go to 1 day of voting (get rid of early voting), hand-marked and hand-counted paper ballots, Get rid of ERIC, and revamp our registration process so that we have people reregister more frequently.

H.4259 Hand Count Audit Act
https://www.scstatehouse.gov//sess125_2023-2024/prever/4259_20230405.htm

This bill calls for a hand count audit of at least 5 races within 3 precincts of each county and should include one statewide office or question; one federal office; and one countywide or less than countywide office or question

It also allows a county or county chair of a political party to call for an audit up to 22 months after an election (hand count or forensic).

H.4260 Voter Access and Transparency Act

https://www.scstatehouse.gov//sess125_2023-2024/prever/4260_20230405.htm

H 4260 eliminates early voting, calls for a return to paper poll books and gives full observation rights to every citizen to observe all phases of the election process and establishes chain of custody documentation to be recorded for all components of the election systems at all times.

It also removes the 65 and older provision for absentee voting thereby reducing the amount of mail in voting.

Most importantly, it establishes a pilot program for 2024 for at least 3 counties to cast votes on hand-marked paper ballots counted by hand. THE PEOPLE WANT PAPER!

H.4261 Clean Voter Roll Act

https://www.scstatehouse.gov//sess125_2023-2024/prever/4261_20230405.htm

This bill makes the counties responsible for maintenance of the voter registration lists and ensures that SC qualified electors are able to receive and inspect at no charge essential voter registration and election reports such as voter registration lists, cast vote records, ballot review and reconciliation reports, chain of custody documents, incident reports, proof of citizenship verification, and signature verification.

H 3162

This adds a provision that any system purchased for use in SC must utilize hand-marked paper ballots that are counted by hand.

Please read these bills and call the members of the Judiciary committee if they are your representatives. This is important. They pay attention to the people who live in their district.

Here is a list of the members of the judiciary committee.

https://www.scstatehouse.gov/CommitteeInfo/housejudiciary.php

(R)  Wm. Weston J. Newton, Chairman—Beaufort County (District 120)
(R)  Wallace H. “Jay” Jordan, Jr., 1st V.C.—- Florence County (District 63)
(D)  John Richard C. King, 2nd V.C. – York County (District 49)
(R)  William H. Bailey – Horry County (District 104)
(D)  Justin T. Bamberg – Bamberg and Orangeburg (District 90)
(D)  Beth E. Bernstein – Richland County (District 78)
(R)  Thomas C. “Case” Brittain, Jr. – Horry County, Myrtle Beach (District 107)
(R)  J. Benjamin “Ben” Connell – Kershaw County (District 52)
(R)  Jason Elliott – Greenville County (District 22)
(R)  Thomas Duval “Val” Guest, Jr. – Horry County, Myrtle Beach (District 106)
(R)  Brandon Guffey – York County, Rock Hill (District 48)
(D)  Rosalyn D. Henderson-Myers- Spartanburg (District 31)
(D)  Patricia Moore “Pat” Henegan – Chesterfield, Darlington, Marlboro (Dist. 54)
(R)  Jeffrey E. “Jeff” Johnson – Horry County (District 58)
(R)  Matthew W. “Matt” Leber —-Charleston County (District 116)
(R)  John R. McCravy, III – Greenwood & Laurens (District 13)
(R)  Cody T. Mitchell – Darlington County (District 65)
(R)  Travis A. Moore – Spartanburg (District 33)
(R)  Robby Robbins – Colleton & Dorchester (District 97)
(D)  Seth Rose – Richland County (District 72)
(R)  Carla Schuessler – Horry County, Myrtle Beach (District 61)

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.

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.

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!