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The Election Report Card: Nov 2021
Explore these questions and more.
- Was the election accurate?
- How do we know?
- Who had trouble voting?
- What's going to happen in the 2022 Midterms?
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Next Forum
Best of Forum (III) - Are the election results correct? (Psst: Audits!)
Tuesday, December 14th • 7–8 pm ET
If only audits were called "Oscars" or "Benjamins" or even "Magic Butterflies." Anything except that dreaded word we associate with paying taxes.
But audits are one of the most important tools in our toolbox to monitor, protect and verify that election results are correct. Especially when most of our votes are being counted by voting machines that we know can make mistakes, or be hacked - audits are a way to give voters and candidates the confidence they crave.
- How do we know if audits are being done correctly?
- Why is there so much controversy around the AZ audit?
- Did it prove anything?
We'll show some of the most insightful clips on audits from our past forums and bring you new information on results that might make you do a double-take.
You won't get this information anywhere else!
The #ElectionProtection forums are a vibrant, revealing dialogue about the problems with our elections & what's needed to improve them. We discuss election security, disability issues, voting rights, and election reform, from perspectives across the political spectrum.
Moderator: Lulu Friesdat, Election Security Journalist, Co-Founder & Executive Director of SMART Elections
Co-Host: Bennie Smith, Shelby County TN Election Commissioner & Software Developer
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Series sponsored by SMART Elections
Co-sponsors: DemCast USA • Democracy Counts • Citizens for Voting Integrity NY • Indivisible Long Beach NY • Indivisible Scarsdale NY • Sierra Club (Lower Hudson Group)
Learn what SMART stands for!
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
"Let me say again how WONDERFUL all your seminars have been --just unbelievably outstanding!!" - Dr. Ruth H. Strauss MD
"That was great tonight! .... Overall just a great program..." - Matthew Kohn, Filmmaker
"Information on election security that you will probably not find anywhere else. Definitely mind blowing..." - Jennifer Tanner, LA County Voters Action Coalition
"The SMART Elections forums bring together national experts to explain how elections work from the inside." - Catherine Ray, advocate
'SMART Elections' Election Protection Series offers a Master Class in Election Security. Lulu Friesdat, her guest speakers and informative visuals not only illustrate the pitfalls of bad voting machine technology but also offer examples of safe alternatives.” - Sara Campbell, advocate
SMART ElectionS in the New York Times
NYC Elections Fiasco - 130,000 Test Ballots Mixed with Real Ones
Brian M. Rosenthal, Dana Rubinstein, Andy Newman, Anne Barnard and Ed Shanahan | June 30, 2021
This week the New York Times quoted our Executive Director about the latest blunder of the New York City Board of Elections.
"It's just one fiasco after another, year after year," said Lulu Friesdat, executive director of Smart Elections, an elections reform group. "The fact that we haven't made the effort to change that is shocking. It's appalling."
brooklyn transparency project
698 More Ballots Than Voters
Uncooperative Board of Elections
698 More Ballots Than Voters
Uncooperative Board of Elections
Uncooperative Board of Elections
Uncooperative Board of Elections
YOUR VOTE IS UNDER ATTACK
The New York State Board of Elections rejected certification of the ExpressVote XL at their meeting on 1/28/21. The ExpressVote XL is a "hybrid" voting machine that has a design flaw called a "shared paper path." It is considered very risky by security experts.
Learn more about hybrid voting machines with a shared paper path.
Professor Rich DeMillo, Chair of the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy at Georgia Tech, said, “It is encouraging that the commissioners refused to certify the ExpressVoteXL, an all-in-one ballot marking device that poses extraordinary risks for the voters of New York.” DeMillo is one of a group of over 50 experts, good government and disability rights groups who signed a letter opposing certification of the voting machine.
However, the vendor ES&S is actively working to overcome the issues that were raised during the certification process and is already in conversation again with the NY State Board of Elections to have the system certified. Additionally there are other voting systems being marketed, and even in use here in New York that have the same security issues.
Legislation was proposed to permanently ban hybrid voting machines with a shared paper path from being used in the state. It passed the NY Senate, but it did not pass the NY Assembly.
Security experts have said that the ExpressVote XL is not secure, and that, "Elections conducted on current BMDs [ballot-marking devices] cannot be confirmed by audits." They do not recommend this type of voting machine. They recommend hand-marked paper ballots, for all voters who are able to mark their ballot by hand, and ballot-marking devices that follow security best-practices for voters with disabilities.
Here are few reasons why so many groups, experts and advocates are against the use of the ExpressVote XL.
- It is a touch screen voting machine. Touch screen machines can go out of calibration and change votes.
- New York has never approved voting on touch screen machines as a primary method of voting and now is not the time to deteriorate our security and our ability to have confidence in our elections.
- The ExpressVote XL miscounted tens of thousand votes in a 2019 Pennsylvania election.
Join us every Friday at 12pm EST to discuss what can be done. We are
- exploring legislation
- connecting with the NY State Board of Elections & County Commissioners
- researching better voting machines for New York
Register in advance for this meeting:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email and the zoom link.
SMART is an acronym
