Restoring Confidence in South Carolina Elections
Restoring Confidence in South Carolina Elections
SC is lucky to have Phil Evans as a resource for election analysis. In this video he discusses his decade plus history of election irregularities.
He moves through 2012, 2016, and even the 2022 primaries.
This is a must see video.
*Special thanks to Jack for his hard work and dedication to producing this video.
This video summarizes over a decade of work by analyst Phil Evans who shows that irregularities in our elections have been going on for some time.
His in depth discovery of anomalies cannot be explained by random human behavior. What is going on here?
Could it be that paper ballots are more secure and accurate than machines?
In this video our resident “data mamma” Cryste provides an overview of the counties we canvassed and how many issues were cleaned up —or not. Some counties certainly did a better job than others. However, considering the counties were supposed to clean their files 90 days before the primary there is certainly a lot of room for improvement. Especially when you find dead people voting….
In this video SC Safe Elections team leader Laura Scharr discusses the CVR lawsuit and how it will help provide more transparency to the voting process as well as possibly set a precedent for other states in obtaining these valuable records. Why can’t the people have more transparency regarding the counting of their vote?
In this video Colonel Shawn Smith presents shocking information on vulnerabilities with the Election Management systems across America and addresses poll tapes, tabulators, and audits.
Worried about issues with your vote not counting? If you are thinking of staying home and not voting, please don’t! The best way to best the cheat is to show up in large numbers on election day. Here are some tips to help ensure your vote counts.
Election integrity expert Mark Cook discussed the vulnerability of machines in general and why seals are important to the integrity of our voting process.
Here is the link to a national radio show called Caravan to Midnight where Lauren Martel and Laura Scharr talk about the lawsuit and why it is so important.
Situation
Our group is a non-partisan organization focused on transparency, accuracy and accountability in elections. We want to ensure that every vote counts and that is counted accurately in our state. Our SC constitution in Article II Section 1 states that our votes should be cast in secret but not counted in secret.
Article II Section 1
“All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, but the ballots shall not be counted in secret. The right of suffrage, as regulated in this Constitution, shall be protected by laws regulating elections and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence from power, bribery, tumult, or improper conduct.”
After observing anomalies around the country, we decided to further investigate the election process in SC, particularly since we have new machines, poll pads (electronic), and processes, such as early voting, in our state. Our cyber experts have done a deep dive on the machines and found hundreds of vulnerabilities in the ES&S systems used in the 2020 election (ES&S Version 6.0.2.0) and our most recent primary (ES&S Version 6.1.1.0).
After canvassing in 8 major counties showed multiple disturbing anomalies, we wanted to request the cast vote records to look for any potential presence of a computer algorithm. This analysis has been done in several states and indicates that there is a pattern of frontloading and other anomalies that appear to be driven by an outside algorithm. We would like to be able to perform this simple analysis to confirm that our machines were not potentially compromised.
What is a cast vote record?
A cast vote record (CVR) is an electronic record of a voter’s ballot selections, and its primary purpose is to provide a record of voter selections that can be counted in an efficient manner to produce election results. CVRs need to be audited against their paper counterparts so that election results can be verified to be accurate.
These are common reports which have guidelines set forth via NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology):
CVRs may include other information besides voter choices, including:
• Information on all contests and contest options on the ballot in addition to those marked
• The ballot style associated with the CVR
• The precinct or location associated with the CVR
• The equipment that produced the CVR
• The political party associated with the ballot for partisan primaries
• Images of the entire ballot and images of write-in areas on the ballot
• An identifier that is also printed on the ballot as it is scanned
• Indications of how the scanner has interpreted various marks.
There is a precedent for Cast Vote records to be considered public records. Over 26 states have been issues these reports from their election officials as well as the District of Columbia. In addition, the Texas Attorney General recently held that the Cast Vote Record reports, scanned ballot images and paper ballots are also considered public record. Our votes are cast in secret but once they are counted, they are considered public record.
Why we are challenging this
We need to challenge this FOIA denial as they are using what we believe is a misguided opinion from the Attorney General’s office. Here are teh two opinions.
AG Wilson’s office’s opinion states the reason for not allowing them to be made public was that they can be tied back to a voter, but there is no evidence of that. Furthermore, they state in the opinion that, “It should be noted that this opinion assumes the facts presented in the request letter as this Office does not have the authority of a court to find facts in an opinion.”
In addition, they cite a case from 1939 to argue that there may have been a way to identify voters in a small race. This was prior to any computers, let alone electronic voting.
Once again, there is precedent for these being public records as the Texas AG has stated and roughly 26 states have issued this data to the public for independent analysis.
Status of the case
Goals
Our goal once we receive these records is to assess the integrity of the vote as the CVR report is very helpful for assessing if there is algorithmic presence in the tabulators and other equipment.
Irreparable harm
If we lose transparency of our vote and the ability for the public and others to audit our elections, we have no way of verifying our sacred right to elect our officials. We are being denied our constitutional right to free and fair elections and our votes not being counted in secret.
For more info and our update please watch the video and read the blogs below
Please help us reach our goal for legal and expert witness fees: https://www.givesendgo.com/SCFOIA
Join our Telegram Channel: https://t.me/+GrDjPb8eUDIzMmY5
On August 26th, the South Carolina Safe Elections group filed a complaint and injunction in order to gain access to cast vote records to further analyze the 2020 election. The records will be destroyed as of September 3rd so time is of the essence. Attached is our complaint and a copy of the injunction. We also kindly ask you to contribute to our campaign to raise legal fees for this battle. https://www.givesendgo.com/SCFOIA
Here is our team leader Laura Scharr discussing the issue:
For Immediate Distribution
Contact Laura Scharr for more information
803-331-3721
lscharr@gmail.com
scsafeelections.org
South Carolina Safe Elections Takes Legal Action to Obtain Election Records
Lexington, S.C. – August 27th, 2022 –
SC Safe Elections (SCSE), the election integrity group in South Carolina, is taking legal action to ensure that evidence from the 2020 election is preserved. They have filed a complaint with several county Board of Election offices as well as the SC Election Commission. They are challenging their election commission’s decision to deny any access to the cast vote records (CVRs) for the 2020 election as they want to do a full analysis to ensure that there was no malfeasance. The group has been fighting for a forensic audit for over a year and trying to obtain these specific records from several counties since January of this year. Their Freedom of Information Act requests have been repeatedly denied and all attempts to have the Governor and SC Attorney General’s office assist in this effort have failed.
SCSE team founder and leader Laura Scharr stated, “All election records and materials from the 2020 election are set to be potentially destroyed per Federal Title 52 section 2070 statute on September 3rd, 2022. The evidence should be preserved beyond this date as destroying the ballots will cause irreparable harm to the citizens of SC who want to ensure that their vote counted and was not canceled out by ineligible votes. Furthermore, it would not take much time or expense to preserve them and release the documents per the FOIA which was served to the specific counties as well as the state election commission (SEC). The South Carolina Election Commission has a duty to the citizens of SC. This public interest issue is currently of utmost importance as our voters have lost trust in our election system. Our elected leaders appear to be in denial regarding the issues we have found with our elections.”
To date, twenty- seven states as well as the District of Columbia have made their CVRs public. A cast vote record report can be generated within minutes and submitted via a thumb drive. The extra cost to preserve these items is minor compared with the potential loss of trust of the SC citizens in their government, particularly if they are unable to fully analyze the 2020 election.
This is an urgent emergency situation due to the timing of the destruction of materials and a SC attorney is filing for SCSE. If the people of SC are not given access to public records of the voting tabulation their ability to properly analyze the elections will be forever lost.
####