Many of us, regardless of party affiliation, believed that something wasn’t quite right about the 2020 election. Unfortunately, the 2022 elections and latest 2023 elections underscored continued issues with the electronic voting systems. Just a few examples are the ballots that were unable to be read in AZ, results that were unable to be reconciled in Texas and GA, and PA vote “flipping” in races. This persistent pattern has resulted in voters as well as candidates losing trust in the system.
Our legislators and election officials tell us to prove that there is fraud, but it is not our job to prove fraud; it is their job to prove there isn’t. The potential for fraud is very real. The inherent risks of computerized or electronic systems are numerous, and you only need one to corrupt the results of an election.
We have found plenty of problems in our SC voting system. Canvassing results from the 2020 election showed that in South Carolina we had dead people voting, people voting who had moved away from the state years ago, and people voting whose address is a commercial address—none of these are legitimate votes and they cancel out our legitimate votes. In fact, in Charleston, there were enough bad data points (phantom voters) to indicate that at least 3 races could have been flipped due to the data we found. Even if the data didn’t change the results of an election, how many bad votes are we willing to tolerate?
Computers are supposed to be accurate and efficient and yet we know that accuracy of our elections continues to come into question. Our state law (Section 7-13-1340 (C ) states that if the system is not accurate then it should no longer be used. Furthermore, our state constitution (Article II Section 1) mandates that we not count ballots in secret and yet we have a black box system that does just that. If machines are so efficient, why are certain areas in our country counting votes for weeks?
Poll observation in our ‘22 elections showed election laws not being followed as well as computers that were not secure and computer “glitches” that flipped votes. There were also candidates missing from the ballots. You can read our report here. https://www.scsafeelections.org/poll-observer-results/
No system should be tolerated if the public doesn’t trust it. We need a transparent, accurate method that people can feel confident about. The press and elected officials lambast hand-marked, hand-counted ballots, but they haven’t truly explored this method nor has it been done in decades in this state. We are currently conducting testing of this method and also writing a whitepaper with grassroots leaders in other states. We believe we have a great method that can be done in a timely, efficient manner and would request the opportunity to test it in pilot programs in a few precincts and counties.
It took the Netherlands 5 months to move to paper ballots. It took Argentina 4 months to make the transition to paper ballots. They had an election with 30 million people and they finished counting in one day. It can be done. Instead of thinking of all the reasons counting hand-marked ballots won’t work to justify a $51M purchase of a system people don’t trust, let’s work on how it can be done.
In the meantime, let’s move to greater transparency for our current system by allowing the public free access to voter rolls, security logs, and cast vote records, among other things. Let’s work together to make our SC elections the model for the nation. Let’s get rid of ERIC and manage our rolls internally. Let’s engage citizens in a discussion of how we can innovate and reengineer this process rather than uniformly denying anything could possibly be wrong and disallowing access to public records that other states provide to their citizens.
The issues we have witnessed across our nation over the past few years are endemic. If there are issues in other states, even with other machine manufacturers, there will be issues in South Carolina. These systems have very similar architecture. Denying the reality of the risks and vulnerabilities is naïve and doesn’t solve anything.
Let’s stand together for free, safe elections that are secure, transparent and verifiable. While Act 150 was a first step, we need further work to truly secure our elections. We ask you, our state representatives, senators, and governor to work for us and help us feel more confident about our vote. Properly run elections with transparent counting of all of the votes are the key to a strong republic. Please allow hearings on election integrity bills H.4259, H.4260, H.4261 and H.3162 and let’s bring these bills out of committee for a floor vote.
Furthermore, let’s ensure that bad election legislation is not passed, like ranked choice voting and bill S406, which calls for uploading election results early. Incremental changes such as these make our systems more vulnerable to potential bad actors. Let’s protect the sanctity of our vote in South Carolina and restore confidence in our state’s elections. We the people are counting on you to do the right thing.