The Vote Center Dilemma: In Today’s World Convenience Will Never Replace Security
Fourth Installment In A Series.
Image Credit: Paula Gomes / The Tennessee Conservative
Submitted by Frank Limpus [Tennessee Voters for Election Integrity] –
You’re driving home from work and you’re late. But you promised you’d pick up bread and milk at the store. You want to make a mad dash in and out. Do you leave the car running with the keys in the ignition to save time? That would be convenient. No. Because someone could steal your car while you’re in the store. You choose security.
You’re grocery shopping and your precocious daughter asks if she could go get the ice cream in the freezer at the other end of the store. Do you let her? That certainly would help you speed things up. No. You have her stay with you because there are sinister people about who think nothing of kidnapping an unaccompanied four-year-old girl in a store. You choose security.
Two examples why security trumps convenience in today’s crazy world. You don’t risk something precious by taking the easy way out. If you really cherish something, you go the extra mile; you choose security. Not convenience. It’s why you purchase life, health or home insurance. It’s also why high mountain roads have guardrails next to sheer cliffs.
Voting in today’s world, where voting processes have been proven to be hijackable (here, here, here, here and here) and votes changed, is no different. What doesn’t make sense is why some citizens blindly accept “convenience vote centers,” despite the ready proof that voting machine systems in internet-enhanced vote centers, can be hacked and votes changed by nefarious people.
Yes, sometimes you have to take convenient steps in life, but with your right to vote? Especially today when technology can alter almost anything? This matters because your vote is priceless and can be manipulated in today’s voting system without guardrails like precinct voting and hand-marked paper ballots (HMPBs).
We’ve recently discussed Americans’ overwhelming loss of confidence in our elections because of renegade machines, unscrupulous workers and complex, ever-changing voting processes (here). Plus the desire by voters for HMPBs to blunt the dangerous risk of machines (here). And why, if a county votes in vote centers, HMPBs will probably never become a reality without adding ANOTHER voting machine system costing at least a half million dollars (here).
When launching this vote center idea, the state used the “convenient” adjective to make vote centers more appealing to citizens. They’re “convenient” because instead of having to vote in your precinct where you’re assigned to vote, you can vote in any of the 25 vote centers here in Williamson County. But equipment, processes and costs are different in vote centers versus precincts.
Like several other Tennessee counties, Williamson County votes in vote centers. And bringing in HMPBs will be next to impossible to block the ill effects of voting machines and the internet without adding expensive ballot-on-demand machines. But if we move back to precinct voting, which is how we voted just three short years ago, and stop the vote center experiment, we could easily add HMPBs, not to mention save money and even remove the internet from vote locations.
Yes, that would mean giving up a little convenience for security. But isn’t trusting that your precious vote in an election will be counted as you cast it worth it?
Precinct voting offers its own convenience because we’d return to voting in 34 precincts versus 25 current vote centers. A 36% increase in voting locations that would speed up voting at every precinct. Plus, we could remove the ballot marking devices (BMDs) if we wanted, which Maury County did for their Spring Hill municipal election earlier in 2023, and double or triple the number of privacy voting booths.
Talk about reduced wait times to vote!
And that would mean easily adding secure hand-marked paper ballots since each precinct would likely need only one ballot per election. If we wanted, we could even go a step further and remove the internet that connects to every vote center and go back to paper registration, which we did up until 2020 with no problems, no glitches, no delays, no down times. That would be both secure AND convenient.
Like a broken record, the Williamson County Election Commission (WCEC) continues to complain that hand-marked paper ballots are riskier than machines, but they’ve yet to explain why 68% of the nation votes on them completely. What do two thirds-plus of Americans know that our WCEC doesn’t?
Some Williamson Countians approve of vote center voting despite all the evidence that it’s risky at best since voting machines can be hacked and votes changed. How quickly they forget the October 2021 election where tabulators stopped counting votes on tabulator tapes despite the machines being tested before the election and approved for use. The WCEC has never explained how the Dominion “erroneous code” got into the machines. Or the fact that none of the national experts, including our Secretary of State, could pinpoint the root cause of the Dominion problem. Besides, Dominion machines are highly similar to the ES&S machines on which we now vote.
We’re told we must trust the machines and the processes. So, do we say, “what the heck, nothing’s going to happen to my vote this time? Yeah, I’ll chance it and vote on machines in a vote center.”
NO! If you listen to the facts, you ask for hand-marked paper ballots voted in precincts — and NOT vote centers — to better ensure your vote is counted as you cast it. Because on HMPBs you can see precisely how you marked your ballot. And precinct voting will better ensure we get HMPBs. You opt for security.
Americans treasure their vote. It’s probably the most important benefit citizens have. So, when voting you put convenience on hold and you choose security to ensure your ballot is counted the way you wanted it counted.
Here are links to the first three installments in this five-part series:
The Vote Center Dilemma series: (#2) Why hand-marked paper ballots are such a big deal.
This is absolutely true! Too many are trusting and don’t realize even after the last three years of evidence that our right to vote is in danger. I hope people wake up!