Election integrity expert Mark Cook discussed the vulnerability of machines in general and why seals are important to the integrity of our voting process.
A guest spot on John B Wells Caravan to Midnight
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.
Update on our legal case to gain access to the Cast Vote Records for SC
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
- We filed a complaint on August 26th in the following county board of election offices: AIKEN COUNTY, BEAUFORT COUNTY, CHARLESTON COUNTY, DORCHESTER COUNTY, GREENVILLE COUNTY, LEXINGTON COUNTY, SPARTANBURG COUNTY and YORK COUNTY as well as the SC Election Commission and the Executive director Howard Knapp. We also asked for a temporary restraining order on the cast vote records which was granted on August 31st.
- Note that we are not affiliated with any other groups who are also trying to secure the election records. We are working with lawyers and doing this in a professional manner.
- We have a hearing on the September 7th to confirm the TRO but if all the counties agree that may be cancelled and the next step will be to move to a hearing on the merits.
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
SC Safe Elections files suit to obtain Cast Vote Records
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.
####
A man walks into a voting booth…
The joke starts like this but it was no joke. This man did walk into a voting booth and there was no council race on his ballot. But here is the punchline…..he was on the ticket and couldn’t even vote for himself.
Watch this video to find out more.
Radio interview about the SC elections
In this radio interview with More than Medicine (see link below) our team leader Laura Scharr discusses the mission, goals and accomplishments of SC Safe Elections and also why the election integrity bill just signed into law doesn’t go far enough.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-than-medicine/id1460173985?i=1000576662692
The SEC is not allowing the public access to Cast Vote Records
The cast vote records show the timing of votes as they come in for each candidate in a race for a county, precinct or state. These have been distributed to the public via FOIA Freedom of Information Requests in 24 states. Our state of SC is refusing access to these reports because they claim there is publicly identifiable information (PII). This is incorrect. These reports do NOT have any PII.
Some concerned legislators have joined us in asking the AG’s office to reverse an opinion from 2020 just prior to the election that these reports should be disallowed. Here are some related articles.
Thanks to the GP and the New American for covering this story.
Are we in a Color Revolution?
Laura and Keith from SC Safe Elections discuss our current climate and how we are likely in the midst of an orange revolution and an orange revolution in reverse. We also discuss that we are at the “precipice.” How can we survive the next few months as we move through the precipice.
Weird Voter Rolls
Cryste Carroll our data analyst for SC Safe Elections discusses some bizarre anomalies in the recent primary data based on her first look at the voter rolls.
Our progress to date- please send this to your state representative and senator
Taking Back Our Freedom: Elections Not Selections
URGENT ELECTION INTEGRITY UPDATE
SITUATION: SC Safe Elections is a grassroots citizens group dedicated to elections that are transparent, simple and secure. While we appreciate the election integrity measures set into place by S108/Act 150, failure to comply with law renders law useless. It is our goal to restore confidence in the SC election process from start to finish by finding holes in compliance and delivering effective strategies for fixing them. The following observations and data, from reliable witnesses in your districts, demand further urgent action on the part of our elected officials and representatives.
CANVASSING OF 2020 ELECTION: We canvassed 8 major counties in South Carolina and found a high rate of deceased registered voters (many of whom voted), people who had relocated (but still voted), people registered to commercial addresses, and people who voted but whose vote wasn’t counted. These findings, highly indicative of fraud, were delivered to SLED. No action has been taken.
CLICK HERE for more info: https://www.scsafeelections.org/resources/
2022 PRIMARY: We mobilized 40 citizens and created an “Election Defense System” of poll observation and other activities in several counties and documented pervasive anomalies that generated affidavits. Here are our findings:
- SC State Election Commission did not follow the SC election laws (7-13-35, 7-13-60, 7-13-72, 7-13-100, 7-13-710, 7-13-1750, 7-13-1770)
- Machine glitches flipped votes from one candidate to another in many counties
- Tamper resistant seals were voided or missing on “certified” machines
- Poor or NO chain of custody practices were observed with ballots, equipment, and thumb drives
- Races were missing from ballots due to redistricting
- Same-day voter photo IDs issued without proper document proof
- Absentee ballot envelopes were examined for signature verification day of receipt and in secret
CLICK HERE for more: https://www.scsafeelections.org/updates/taking-back-our-freedom-election-not-selections/
ES&S MACHINES: Our cyber experts have done a thorough investigation on the ES&S systems and found over 100 vulnerabilities for both the 2020 version as well as the system used in the June 2022 primary. Proprietary agreements between the SEC and ES&S (which were NOT approved and certified by the Secretary of State) violate the SC Constitution requirement that our ballots are to be cast in secret but not counted in secret. Delegating final counts to an off-shore foreign entity, SCTYL, in a black box environment where encryption, shuffling and mixing occurs is also suspect.
CLICK HERE to learn more: https://scsafeelections.org/updates/election-machine-vulnerabilities-and-potential-for-fraud-even-in-red-states/
STONEWALLING DISCOVERY: Analysis of the Cast Vote Records (CVRs) from the 2020 General Election would allow our experts to decipher whether a thorough audit is necessary. Our attempts at acquiring the CVRs via FOIA have been thwarted by the SEC’s insistence that such records might contain voters’ personally identifiable information, an argument upheld by an opinion letter dated 9/28/2020 from the Office of the Attorney General. If the ballot images or CVRs do contain personally identifiable information, the SEC, charged with maintaining the secrecy of the ballot, has mismanaged the elections so as to nullify the results. This possibility, then, must also be investigated.
URGENT ENTREATIES:
- FILE an Injunction or otherwise stop any deletion/purging of 2020 election data.
- Acquire CVRs for 2020 general election and 2022 primary.
- Eliminate electronic voting. Safe and effective alternatives are at our disposal.
- Require substantive end to end audit of votes cast for every primary and general election.
- Hold lawbreakers accountable and reconstitute the SEC.
We are subject matter experts. Work with us for true election integrity in South Carolina.