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Lawmakers Seek Election Integrity

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley has  introduced a bill to ban ballot harvesting in federal elections. The measure, according to the Missouri Republican, is designed to protect election integrity in response to disputes during the 2020 presidential election. The legislation seeks to improve the ability of campaigns to observe vote counting operations, require mail-in or absentee ballots to be counted and recorded immediately, and require that ballot counting, once begun, continue until completed.

Hawley stressed that “The debacle of the 2020 election has made clear that serious reforms are needed to protect the integrity of our elections. The American people deserve transparency—that means banning ballot harvesting, empowering poll watchers, and taking steps to ensure that all legally cast ballots are accounted for. The confusion and controversy of [the 2020 election] is not acceptable, Congress must take action to Ban ballot harvesting in federal elections and incentivize states to do the same.”

Specifically, the measure would: require that at least two representatives of each campaign be permitted to observe polls and vote counting operations; require mail-in or absentee ballots to be counted and recorded immediately upon receipt, with no results to be disclosed until after the closure of polling places on the date of an election; require that ballot counting, once begun, continue until completed—no delays or pauses except in the event of imminent emergency; require states to maintain round-the-clock video surveillance monitoring of absentee ballot drop boxes, with unedited footage to be made available upon request to members of the public at no charge; and impose requirements, adapted from existing Florida law, that mandate the auditing of voting systems and the reporting in advance of preparations made for upcoming general elections.

A companion bill has been introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican. Kelly described the need for his measure, H.R. 8753, designated as the Protect Election Integrity Act of 2020: “As our nation waits patiently for the official results of the 2020 presidential election, one thing has become abundantly clear: the administration of the election in several states has caused millions of Americans to lose faith in our electoral system,” said Kelly. “The Protect Election Integrity Act of 2020 will help restore their trust, which is essential to the health of our republic.”

Trump campaign attorneys have filed more than 20 legal challenges in several states, in addition to demanding recounts in other jurisdictions.  U.S. Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal prosecutors to probe alleged irregularities.

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Due to the serious irregularities in the 2020 campaign, U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr has authorized the United States Department of Justice to review the serious allegations.  In a letter to senior DOJ staff, Barr stated:  “Now that the voting has concluded, it is imperative that the American people can trust that our elections were conducted in such a way that the outcomes accurately reflect the will of the voters. Although the States have the primary responsibility to conduct and supervise elections under our Constitution and the laws enacted by Congress, the United States Department of Justice has an obligation to ensure that federal elections are conducted in such a way that the American people can have full confidence in their electoral process and their government.”

The twin bills reflect widespread unease over a number of challenges to electoral integrity by both Republicans and independent analysts.

The Gatestone Institute has concentrated on problems with the balloting software used in many state. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, cited by Gatestone,  emphasizes that the software that was widely used was developed by a company called Smartmatic, a company that was founded by Hugo Chávez, and by his two allies who still own it. “It’s been used to cheat in elections in South America. It was banned by the United States about a decade ago. It’s come back now as a subcontractor to other companies to sort of hide in the weeds… Finally, if you want to get down to the votes, let’s pick Pennsylvania. We have identified 632,000 illegal votes. It’s enough to have the president win the state by 300,000, which is actually what he won it by, if you get that Smartmatic machine out.”

Illustration: Hugo Chavez, whose software was used in some states in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election (pixabay)

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Should America Return to Paper Ballots? Part 2

The New York Analysis concludes its study of electronic ballots vs. paper voting.

A study in the Atlantic by Dan Gilmor notes that “Accountability is a crapshoot. In some jurisdictions, voters use machines that create electronic tallies with no ‘paper trail’—that is, no tangible evidence whatsoever that the voter’s choices were honored. A “recount” in such places means asking the machine whether it was right the first time… For reasons that remain unclear, Congress has been largely uninterested in doing what’s needed to make voting safe, secure, and verifiable (perhaps because the existing system is how members got elected)…Barring a national commitment to getting this right, maybe the answer is to change direction entirely. Maybe we should abandon electronic voting systems and do everything on paper, and count by hand. We’d wait longer for results, a lot longer. If it ensured accurate results, though, I’d call that a reasonable trade.

Fox News  reports that Georgia is looking to return to paper ballots. “The most secure elections in the world are conducted with a piece of paper and a pencil,” said Georgia State Rep. Scot Turner. “It allows you to continue into the future to verify the result.”  Turner has proposed a bill that would retire Georgia’s electronic touch-screen voting machines and switch to paper ballots that voters would fill out and then be counted by optical scan machines. The technology has been in use for decades to score standardized tests for grade-school students.”

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The National Association of Secretaries of State  notes that “Just as we must have contingency plans for floods and all kinds of natural phenomena, we must also be ready to deal with man-made threats. The risks posed by foreign government hackers, cyber criminals and everyday hacktivists are not new to election officials. States and localities are committed to working with national security agencies and other federal partners, including the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to solicit input on threats and risk mitigation in our elections. States are already deploying numerous resources for this election cycle, including extensive testing for cyber threats described by the recent FBI alert, and best practices guidelines produced by the EAC. Additional steps may be taken based upon credible or specific threats that are identified in the run-up to Election Day. Secretaries of State are also part of a DHS Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group, created for sharing resources, best practices and technical advice. To be clear: The equipment that people vote on is NOT connected to the Internet. Vote counting is NEVER done with systems connected to the Internet, and tabulation systems are not networked. Election systems must be physically secured when not in use, with public accuracy and performance testing that anyone can observe. Post-election audits can help to further guard against deliberate manipulation of the election, as well as unintentional software, hardware or programming issues. Again, there are no documented cases of flawed voting results linked to alleged cyber hacking.”

Of course, there have been calls in some states to allow voting via internet, despite the NASS statement.