Count the vote

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CountTheVote.Info

January 5, 2021      

CONTACT: Lulu Friesdat, Executive Director

Lulu@SMARTelections.us

PRESS RELEASE

Non-partisan Project Releases Trove of Data From Presidential Election: Recommends Full Public Hand-Count Audit of Georgia Senate Race

Areas of interest: Georgia Senate Run-off, Election Protection

New York City - Jan 5, 2021 -- SMART Elections, a non-partisan election reform organization is announcing the release of data and analysis from the Presidential election in Georgia. The report, available at the project’s website 

CountTheVote.Info provides insight into concerns about today’s high stakes Senate run-off. The data reveals a chaotic audit and recount process that marred the Georgia presidential election. 

For example, one document shows that even when running the same ballots through the same voting machines during the recount, ballot counts swung wildly by thousands of votes. Ballots were often categorized randomly, sometimes as “Election Day” votes, sometimes as “Early”. Four counties did not retain all votes accurately, and close to 6,000 additional votes were discovered that had not been counted in the original certified count. In a deep dive into the intricacies of local elections, the SMART Elections’ data team has tracked the complex path these lost votes took. The stories include forgotten memory cards, batches of half-scanned ballots and volunteer election officials tasked with too much responsibility when senior counterparts were out sick with COVID. 

“The #CountTheVote data snapshot shows that election offices in Georgia did not always obey statutes or follow best practices in the presidential election,” notes Lulu Friesdat, executive director of SMART Elections. “When best practices, like reconciling the number of voters with the number of ballots are not followed, vote totals can be called into question, and confidence plummets. We must ensure an accurate count in the Senate run-off, given that control of the Senate hangs in the balance.”

SMART Elections is joining other election protection groups, in asking the Secretary of State (SOS) to conduct a full, public, statewide, hand-count audit of the Senate race. Election officials have statutory discretion to ask for this. Election officials must follow best practices which include accurate ballot accounting and reconciliation, posting election night poll tapes at all precinct locations, a full hand-count audit, or a risk-limiting audit with ballots tracked correctly, and the use of standard formats like spreadsheets - not obscure software. Having totals publicly available throughout the count and providing complete public transparency creates an environment of  competence that candidates and  members of the public will respond to. Failure to do this will result in a continued crisis of confidence, with contention and litigation about the end result.

#CountTheVote’s first core initiative directly addresses this type of ballot tracking problem with their poll tape project. Many of the documents in the current report are part of that mission. The #CountTheVote project used a variety of new technologies in the process, and is releasing their first major report about their work today. The effort is a partnership with election protection groups across the country. 

Georgia statutes require that election officials post poll tapes (also known as election night results tapes) outside each polling location. Comparing those local election night totals to results published later, ensures that results do not change, or get lost as happened in the Georgia presidential race. When counties post poll tapes, and they are photographed by the public, and monitored for accuracy - lost votes are found more easily. An incident in Cobb County during this year’s Presidential election in which lost votes were found this way, is documented in the report.

If the poll tapes and the published results match, voters and candidates can have more confidence in the results. If they don’t - it is easier to pinpoint where issues may be occurring. Many Georgia counties did follow these procedures and the SMART Elections’ comparisons demonstrate when that part of the process is completed correctly. However the project also brings to light problem areas where counties either seemed not to post poll tapes, or the available tapes did not match the results. Each county was called personally and given a chance to engage in dialogue about the discrepancies.

“Citizen oversight of elections is the hallmark of a modern democratic society. Documenting results as they are tabulated and released at the first possible moment has a long tradition in the U.S. because it is so effective.” said Marilyn Marks, Executive Director of Coalition for Good Governance, and a partner organization in the effort.

Says Rich DeMillo, Distinguished Professor of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, “The idea of crowdsourcing is to bring the wisdom of crowds to problems that seem too large for individuals.  Election transparency is one of those problems. #CountTheVote should be an example to everyone of how a connected community can build confidence in the accuracy of election outcomes.”

The project is working with election officials to better understand the issues and improve transparency through crowd-sourced data. Volunteers will be photographing poll tapes in the Georgia Senate Run-Off and many election protection organizations are helping to support them.

SMART Elections is part of a broad coalition of partners working to ensure a fair election, including AUDIT USA, CCoHOPE, Center for Common Ground, Citizens' Audit Broward, Citizens for Voting Integrity New York, Coalition for Good Governance, Democracy Counts, Florida Fair Elections Coalition, Michigan Election Reform Alliance, National Voting Rights Task Force, People Demanding Action, Protect Our Vote Philly, Reclaim Our Vote, SeeSay2020, and Transparent Elections North Carolina.

Media Notes: To schedule an interview with Lulu Friesdat, Rich DeMilllo, or coalition partner Marilyn Marks, or or to request additional information on this initiative, please contact Lulu Friesdat at Lulu@SMARTelections.us. 

About SMART Elections and #CountTheVote

SMART Elections is a nonpartisan project dedicated to elevating the issue of election reform to an urgent national priority. We are collaborating to make U.S. elections more secure, accessible, accurate, fair, inclusive, transparent and verifiable. #CountTheVote is a groundbreaking initiative using crowdsourcing technologies to protect and verify the results of the 2020 election. To learn more, visit https://smartelections.us or http://countthevote.info.

View this email in your browser.