Over the last few months 13 county Republican parties that comprise the majority of the state’s population (57% of our GOP delegates and roughly 60% of our population) of our state passed resolutions for hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots. These resolutions had very similar language. Specifically, they asked for hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots. In addition, many of these counties also ratified the RNC Resolution for Election Excellence. Please see this related post. Note that this is the RNC for which Mr. McKissick is co-chair.
Apparently, neither of these resolutions were put forth for a vote in the past State EC GOP meeting on September 30th. Instead, a substantial modification of the RNC resolution was passed that simply seemed to refer to our current system. It had no mention of hand-counting or hand-marked paper ballots. Below is a comparison of the RNC and State GOP resolutions.
There is a misunderstanding that our current system is a “paper ballot” system. It is not. It is a coded ballot system. The tabulators scan the bar code at the top of the paper “receipt” from the Ballot Marking Device. There is no way that a voter can verify their vote as they don’t have a barcode reader and, according to the State Election Commission, they can’t take a picture of their ballot.
Furthermore, our votes are counted in secret via the tabulators which are manufactured overseas –a serious security issue. We can’t even verify the vote detail as we are not allowed access/view audit records (CVRs), the same records to which 28 other states allow public access.
The only hand-count reference in the election integrity resolution that was passed was for audits and recounts, not to count the actual election.
The only way that a voter can feel confident that their vote was counted in a transparent way is to have a system of hand-counted, hand-marked paper ballots that are counted at the precinct level (preferably with one day of voting, not 15 days+) while the count is publicly observed and videotaped.
The proposed system above is one that voters can trust. According to a Rasmussen survey, over 62% of likely voters believe there was cheating in the 2020 and 2022 elections and are concerned about cheating in the 2024 election. Unless we modify our current system, we will have voters and candidates who are disenfranchised and thus don’t participate in the process of elections in our state.
Contrary to the current narrative by some of our state leaders, our electronic voting system has numerous vulnerabilities that have been documented not only by cyber experts across the state and the country, but also by CISA itself. All systems are hackable. Period. Ignoring the vulnerabilities of the electronic systems that are currently in place is naïve as well as suspect.
We are supposed to have a representative form of government in our state and country, and our counties deserve to be heard. What is the point of passing resolutions in multiple counties only to be ignored at the state level? These resolutions that have been passed in these 13 counties should be heard and brought to a vote at the state GOP Executive Committee.
Our state has the opportunity to be the gold standard for election integrity. Let’s use this opportunity to ensure that is the case. Passing a weak version of the RNC Election Resolution shows that our state GOP isn’t willing to walk the walk when it comes to true election reform. Act 150 was not enough. The people want paper.