By Luther Weeks on July 29, 2023
We have said it before, we will say it again: The best protection is machine counting in polling places on election night followed by sufficient post-election audits and recounts. <for example>
A recent article in Votebeat: Activists for hand-counting ballots don’t acknowledge drawbacks: More mistakes, time, and money
Years ago a minority of liberals wanted only hand-counts now its election-denying conservatives.
It seems that those who have never tried have opinions that are not informed by sufficient facts.
Posted in CT, National, Post-Election Audits, Recounts/Recanvasses
By Luther Weeks on June 16, 2023
Report released this week on vulnerabilities of the Dominion ImageCast, used for the vast majority of the votes in Georgia <Report>
The report was actually submitted to a court on July 1, 2021 – the court considered the information so dangerous to elections that is has largely been suppressed until now!
However in two years, Dominion has made several fixes, yet Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is in no hurry to update Georgia machines at least until after the 2024 election.
Note: After planning for a couple of months, I launched CTVoters Count in late 2007, Little did I know that the California Top To Bottom Review would be release at that time! Many are claiming that this report may rival the impact of that California report.
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, National, Reports
By Luther Weeks on October 31, 2022
Some in Nevada want to eliminate machine counting altogether in elections. Not a good idea in our opinion, especially for the United States.
Editorial: The best solution, in our opinion, is machine counting followed by sufficient audits and in close votes full hand recounts. Why?…
Posted in National, Our Editorials
By Luther Weeks on October 30, 2022
Posted in CT, National
By Luther Weeks on July 22, 2022
A new article by Andrew Appel reminds us: Magical thinking about Ballot-Marking-Device contingency plans .
The Center for Democracy and Technology recently published a report, “No Simple Answers: A Primer on Ballot Marking Device Security”, by William T. Adler. Overall, it’s well-informed, clearly presents the problems as of 2022, and it’s definitely worth reading. After explaining the issues and controversies, the report presents recommendations, most of which make a lot of sense, and indeed the states should act upon them. But there’s one key recommendation in which Dr. Adler tries to provide a simple answer, and unfortunately his answer invokes a bit of magical thinking…
This the magical thinking: “election officials should have a contingency plan.” The problem is, when you try to write down such a plan, there’s nothing that actually works! .
Fortunately Connecticut uses Hand Marked Paper Ballots except that it allows the IVS BMD to serve those with disabilities.
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, National, NonScienceNonsense
By Luther Weeks on July 2, 2022
The Supreme Court has taken a redistricting case for next year that could take the 2024 Presidential Election out of the hands of the voters and the the Governors and put them exclusively in the domain of the state legislatures. Tom Hartman has the best explanation I have seen: Beware: The Supreme Court Is Laying Groundwork to Pre-Rig the 2024 Election
This scenario isn’t just plausible: it’s probable. GOP-controlled states are already changing their state laws to allow for it, regardless of how their people vote…
Posted in National
By Luther Weeks on May 25, 2022
Jonathan Simon, via WhoWhatWhy.org Letter to My Nonvoting Daughter:
“My daughter, 28, recently wrote in an email to me, “I’m so disappointed in how the world is right now, I don’t vote because of it.”
Here is my response to her.
Dear L_____,
A lecture is coming that you’ll probably feel you could live without. Nevertheless, I persist.
Reminiscent of our past post:
THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE YOUR VOTE WON’T COUNT – IS TO NOT VOTE.
Posted in National, Other Editorials
By Luther Weeks on March 10, 2022
It is refreshing to see that main stream media is beginning to recognize the threat of insiders to elections. I agree that election officials are by and large of high integrity, however just like other officials a few are not. Insiders can have access to a wide range of election equipment, ballots, and other data that create and verify election results. A recent Associated Press article by Christia A. Cassidy points that out:
In a handful of states, authorities are investigating whether local officials directed or aided in suspected security breaches at their own election offices. At least some have expressed doubt about the 2020 presidential election, and information gleaned from the breaches has surfaced in conspiracy theories pushed by allies of former President Donald Trump.
Insiders are not just election officials, other insiders include town hall employees in the mail room and network/computer staff, janitors with access to storage areas and election offices; They include post office workers and various vendor personal with access to networks or to repair election equipment. Here are some examples from Connecticut and elsewhere:
Posted in CT, CT Skulduggery and Errors, National
By Luther Weeks on March 1, 2022
My friends at OSET (Open Source Election Technology just officially launched a new podcast yesterday: Dead Men Don’t vote. Its goal it to explain all that officials do under the covers to run our elections. The 1st episode, Do Dead People Actually Vote?, lived up to that goal. They packed a lot into 33 minutes. <link>
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, National, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on January 8, 2022
There is a lot that needs to be improved in our elections. The current bill before Senate and House, the Freedom to Vote Act, is well intended yet in at least one provision it actually makes elections less secure, less likely to provide public confidence. This is a change from previous bills H.R.1 and all version of S.1.
This new provision would prevent observers from within eight feet of ballots until after certification. That would make it impossible for observers to actually see that votes were counted and totaled accurately in audits and recounts (recanvasses in CT).
Posted in National, Post-Election Audits, Recounts/Recanvasses
