By Luther Weeks on March 2, 2018
On Monday we testified against H.B.5173 An Act Protecting the Privacy of Voters
Note that this version of partially protecting some voters includes preventing open, transparent, and publicly verifiable elections by any and all voters, candidates, and parties.
Here is my testimony <read>. This is the summary:
The heart and soul of democracy is justified trust in elections. [This Bill]would be a death blow to the heart of public verifiability. [It] would preclude independent verification of the lists and electors recorded as voting; it would preclude officials from demonstrating to the public that our elections are on the up and up.
Like paper ballots, voter registration records need to be open, transparent, and publicly verifiable. (And recorded on paper.)
Posted in Legislature 2018, Mail/Absentee Voting, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on February 5, 2018
Last Wednesday evening, I was one of five speakers and a moderator at a Community Conversation held by the Glastonbury Martin Luther King Community Initiative. There were about 60 to 75 in attendance. We addressed “Does your vote count? An examination of the Issues” I addressed issues in two areas: How could you know if your vote was counted? And what I would recommend to expand democracy in Connecticut, without risking election integrity. Here are my prepared remarks:
Posted in CT, CT Law, CT Skulduggery and Errors, Electronic Vulnerability, Internet Security Issues
By Luther Weeks on January 28, 2018
In a 3am decision, the Connecticut Supreme Court ordered a third primary in Bridgeport. CTPost: Supreme Court orders 3rd primary for Bridgeport
“Citizens can expect and are entitled to integrity in the process and a fundamentally fair and honest election, and this, I regret to say, they did not get,” the judge stated in overturning the results of the primary and ordering a new one.
Posted in CT, CT Skulduggery and Errors, Mail/Absentee Voting
By Luther Weeks on January 21, 2018
I have followed this story off and on for years. As promised this film not only reviews the story but adds additional information. People ask me if any elections have been stolen. I say probably a few are and point to this as one that was. The cover-up is much much worse than the initial crime. The cover-up of the cover-up even worse. Yet, nothing happening once everything was pretty much in the open is worst of all. Like many documentaries, the first half or so is a little slow, yet you will be richly, disturbingly rewarded for watching till the end.
Posted in National, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on January 11, 2018
Last time we editorialized that the Virginia race that came down to a single ballot and a drawing was noting to be alarmed at, nothing but a close vote. Yet, there is a new twist, with many voters in Virginia registered in incorrect districts. In the district in question just a single voter incorrectly voting in the district or incorrectly excluded could have changed the result. Virginia: Thousands of Virginians may have voted in the wrong state House districts
Posted in National, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on December 18, 2017
From Alternet via TruthOut: Was the Heated 2016 Democratic Primary Rigged for Debbie Wasserman Schultz?
“I see what I would call a high likelihood of massive incompetence. Either that or there is fraud. I don’t think you should see numbers this big in this many precincts.”
“This is really weird.” He continued that they ought to be reconciling the number of voters with ballots and if they’re not doing it, “they’re grossly negligent.” Jones served on the Election Assistance Commission’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee for four years, but said “I’ve never seen a county that looks like this.”
Posted in Chain of Custody, National, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on September 2, 2017
NYTimes story that justifies our skepticism on NC ePollbook story: In Election Interference, Its What Reporters Didn’t Find That Matters
Among other things, we learned that intelligence agencies had intentionally worded their conclusions to specifically address “vote tallying,” not the back-end election systems—conclusions that were not even based on any in-depth investigation of the state election systems or the machines themselves, but on the accounts of American spies and digital intercepts of Russian communications, as well as on assessments by the Department of Homeland Security—which were largely superficial and not based on any in-depth investigation of the state electionsystems or machines themselves.
As we said in our earlier post: See No Evil, Find No Monkey Business, ePollbook Edition
the simple case is that we now have no reason to trust the claim that it was all a simple software error, that the Federal and State Governments were actually protecting us.
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, Internet Security Issues, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on August 28, 2017
“Justice delayed is justice denied.” What could be worse? Perhaps “Justice delayed and fines transferred to the victims.”
In 2014 the Registrars in Hartford failed to provide check-off lists to polling places in time for voting to begin at 6:00am. From the stories of the public and explanations from officials at the time, it seems pretty clear it was not a simple error or comedy of errors.
Editorial
The pollbook delay went beyond incompetence. These conclusions and fines should not take close to three years. The well-compensated registrars should be paying the fines not the City.
Posted in CT, CT Skulduggery and Errors, Our Editorials
By Luther Weeks on August 24, 2017
A vigilant Registrar in New Haven pursues suspicions. From the New Haven Independent Judge Hopeful Submits Forged Signatures <read>
Americo Carchia Wednesday said he’s considering whether to end his campaign for probate judge and vowed to cooperate with any potential criminal investigations after learning that he had submitted petitions with forged signatures to qualify for the Sept. 12 Democratic primary ballot.
Posted in CT, CT Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on August 17, 2017
NPR All Things Considered Russian Cyberattack Targeted Elections Vendor Tied To Voting Day Disruptions
“Voters were going in and being told that they had already voted — and they hadn’t,” recalls Allison Riggs, an attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
The electronic systems — known as poll books — also indicated that some voters had to show identification, even though they did not.
Timeline: Foreign Efforts To Hack State Election Systems And How Officials Responded
Investigators later discovered the company that provided those poll books had been the target of a Russian cyberattack…
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, National, Skulduggery and Errors