Why Hand-Marked Ballots Are Such A Big Deal
Second In A Series
Image Credit: verifiedvoting.org
Submitted by Frank Limpus [Tennessee Voters for Election Integrity] –
Last week we examined how recent elections across the nation and in Williamson County have resulted in a loss of confidence in the voting processes, machines, and even the commissions charged with ensuring our elections are transparent, safe and fair.
Here’s that installment.
So why are hand-marked paper ballots so important to so many voters? More than 68% of Americans vote on them instead of ballot marking devices (BMDs). Less than a third vote on BMDs. How come?
Because voting machines can’t be trusted to be accurate.
BMD-created ballots are produced on a machine and have a bar code at the top. The voter’s candidate choices on the ballot are encased in that bar code. When the ballot goes into the scanner/tabulator, the machine reads only the bar code, NOT the list of voter selections that are printed on the ballot. No voter can read that bar code to ensure their choices are there.
In addition, no one is allowed to inspect unimpeded the scanner/tabulator which counts the ballots to ensure there are no wireless components or errant software or malware that’s been inserted into the machine that could change bar-coded votes. In fact, BMDs have been proven by experts to be exceptionally vulnerable.
Recall that all nineteen of the Dominion tabulators in the October 2021 Franklin municipal election were tested and deemed to be safe and secure… before seven of the machines stopped counting votes on the tabulator tape during election day. The Secretary of State performed a post-election inspection with the Election Assistance Commission and its two inspection labs, but none could pinpoint the problem’s root cause. Dominion later affirmed there was erroneous code in the system that affected the BMDs and tabulators. So, how did that get in there?
After problems like these, how can voters trust the ballots that are created by machines?
What is not shared with voters is how risky the BMDs are. Yet, here’s the ES&S senior vice president of security (whose voting machines we now use) affirming in Congressional testimony that voting machines can be hacked. Here are nineteen studies asserting various provable risks in using BMDs to mark ballots. And here is cybersecurity expert J. Alex Halderman strongly recommending against BMD use based on his extensive study of Georgia’s election.
The risk of BMDs is completely neutralized with hand-marked paper ballots (HMPBs).
Unlike with BMDs, with HMPBs the VOTER makes his selections on the paper ballot so he knows exactly who he selected when the ballot goes into the tabulator to be counted. If an errant mark on the ballot causes the tabulator to reject the ballot, it can immediately be corrected by the voter. His intent is precise. SECURITY VERSUS CONVENIENCE.
Election experts prefer hand-marked paper ballots. Plus, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (pages 6 and 79) has affirmed that paper ballots are the preferred standard that should be used in elections. You can’t hack paper and, as opposed to machines, paper doesn’t require programming or extensive testing to work safely and securely. According to cybersecurity expert Capt. Seth Keshel, “the (current machine) system itself is obviously designed to be so complicated that it requires confidence in government to adjudicate winners and losers.”
Paper is state of the art and ballots today have actually taken technology – such as anti-counterfeiting US currency strategies — and moved them into paper ballots to make them safer.
In addition, using hand-marked paper ballots breaks the monopoly that a voting machine vendor has on a county’s voting process. In Williamson County, we must use the vendor’s ballot paper, its ballot-producing machine to write the voter’s correct precinct on the ballot, its ballot-marking device to mark the ballot bar code containing candidate selections, its scanner to scan the bar code, its tabulator to tabulate the votes, its USB stick to track all votes on the tabulator and its election management system to compile all votes from throughout the county. The vendor controls a huge election monopoly!
Smart businesses don’t put all their supplier eggs in one basket, they diversify. Using hand-marked paper ballots from another vendor would remove at least three of the seven control points that the vendor has over our election.
Removing the BMDs, which have been proven to be the holdup in the voting process, and replacing them with double or triple the number of privacy voting booths and pens, will more than adequately handle an overwhelming flow of voters in a vote center or precinct, as well as reduce costs.
A recent resolution from the GOP’s Republican National Committee (RNC) titled “Return to Excellence in American Voting,” affirms a number of improvements that have been monitored in voting processes nationwide – including adding hand-marked paper ballots — can bring greater security and transparency into our voting process.
Because BMD voting machines are risky, voters are clamoring for a better, safer way to mark their ballots. Hand-marked paper ballots are an answer experts have thoroughly endorsed and citizens have approved.
Next, we’ll explain why a vote center environment makes the use of HMPBs almost impossible in our county.
Another excellent op-ed about election integrity! With all the problems and voting irregularities experienced in many parts of the country, hand-marked paper ballots ought to be a no-brainer for election officials.
Agree….HMB answers most important issue for voters SECURITY!
In addition to paper ballot voting, I’d like a confirmation mailed to me after voting detailing my candidate selections as proof that my vote counted. Come on TN…let’s get it done right!
But you still have unelected Eichmann clone, satan worshipping pedophile Jon Duda, and his 16 corrupt, evil, satan worshipping pedophile henchmen on the Williamson County Board ensuring that elections in Williamson County will remain 100% fake.
I disagree. Two years ago in Sevier County we had 85 offices in the election. Think how much time it takes to count paper votes in that many races. I don’t see tabulation of paper ballots as more secure than machine tabulation because the vote-counters themselves could be biased or bribed to slew the numbers; remember the suitcases of ballots that came from under the tables after Georgia election officials were told the counting process was suspended until the next morning? Instead, I suggest that we audit the votes at the precinct level. The state employs experienced auditors in the sales tax division and in departments that audit the performance of various branches and agencies of the counties. On election day and perhaps a few days after, these auditors could be assigned to do random audits of a sampling of precincts. The cards prepared by the ballot marking devices that have been put through the tabulator drop into collection boxes that after the poll closes are sealed and certified by the precinct poll workers. Auditors could recount these to verify the totals given by the tabulator. But wait you say, I might choose Trump but the ballot marking device bar codes Biden. To catch that, the auditors can write their own simple code to read the bar code with their own scanners, such scanners can be purchased easily. Simply require the manufacturer of the ballot marking device to provide the schema they use for the bar codes. If they scream “that’s proprietary ” tell them BS, it’s one of several open systems and if they want Tennessee’s business they must tell us which one. The precincts to be audited will not know in advance that they will be audited. Auditors are accustomed to choosing an appropriate sample size to give a resulting confidence level in the upper levels (95% or more). If you don’t like using the existing staff of state auditors, instead the Secretary of State could contract with one or more of the leading CPA firms domiciled in Tennessee.
This is a great step. Sadly, Rutherford county still has machines, although I know they are not the ES&S. Those are gone and now replaced (I forget the name) and I was told by the election commissioner these are made totally in America, supposedly. In my opinion, we should press our representatives to push for a state-wide ban on machines and demand voting be done by paper, counted by hands. Also, we never mail unsolicited ballots, never.
You guys vote on MicroVote DREs, direct recording electronic machines. I’d have to check but I can almost bet they contain components from the Far East… Your big problem is that the machines font produce a paper ballot. Instead they now produce something like a grocery store receipt showing your selections. But I believe the paper can be easily damaged. No real difference from other machines. And anything but transparent.