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Election integrity alert! 350 precincts voted in the Texas Dist. 19 election, which surprisingly FLIPPED RED. Of those, 221 were in blue Bexar county, the 4th largest county in TX. Bexar uses ES&S ivotronic PAPERLESS touchscreen voting machines. @PeteGallegoTX @BetoORourke 1/
https://twitter.com/electionwatchus/status/1042228898560397312
3/ Texas Secretary of State report showing that 350 precincts were involved in the District 19 special election (that suprisingly flipped red), with 221 in blue Bexar county. enrpages.sos.state.tx.us/public/jul31_3…
4/ Verified Voting report showing that Bexar county uses ES&S ivotronic paperless voting machines. verifiedvoting.org/verifier/#year… 
5/ Report showing that Bexar county is the fourth largest county in the state. texas-demographics.com/counties_by_po…
6/ It looks like the next largest county involved in the District 19 election was Medina with its population of 50k (verses Bexar's 1.96 million). Per Verified Voting, Medina uses a combination of paperless touchscreens and scanners (paper ballots).
7/ Report on the ES&S ivotronic (the type of machine used in Bexar county, Texas, the 4th largest county in the state.
https://twitter.com/TanyasTwit/status/918551353064087552
8/ One other county in the District 19 election, Brewster county, also used PAPERLESS voting machines (again, the ES&S ivotronic). That county is Brewster county, w/ a population of 9,337. verifiedvoting.org/verifier/#year…
9/ Although just two of the 17 counties that voted in the Dist. 19 election used paperless (unverifiable) voting machines, those 2 counties (Bexar and Brewster) accounted for about 14k of the 26k votes cast in the election. enrpages.sos.state.tx.us/public/jul31_3…
10/ In other words, more than half of the votes in the Texas District 19 election, which surprised everyone by flipping RED, came from paperless 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting machines.
11/ Looking ahead to @BetoORourke's Texas senate race against Ted Cruz, we have a serious election integrity problem because all of the counties shown in dark brown use paperless unverifiable voting machines. verifiedvoting.org/verifier/#year…
12/ Equally alarming, Travis county (the fifth largest county in Texas) recently replaced its touchscreen voting machines with ES&S's touchscreen barcode balloting system called the ExpressVote, which I discuss in detail here. medium.com/@jennycohn1/st…
13/ Some ES&S ExpressVote machines can circumvent even manual recounts and manual audits with what an esteemed cybersecurity election expert calls a "permission to cheat" feature. freedom-to-tinker.com/2018/09/14/ser…
I discovered & exposed this "permission to cheat" feature in my @tytinvestigates piece re: Johnson County, Kansas & its use of ExpressVote machines that have this feature. Below is an excerpt quoting @philipbstark (inventor of Risk Limiting Audits). 14/
15/ I don't know if the ExpressVote machines purchased by Travis County have this feature, but will try to find out. Even if they don't, however, there are many problems with these touchscreen machines that vendors & election officials misleadingly call "paper ballot systems."
16/ Here, again, is my Medium article discussing the many problems with touchscreens generally and touchscreen barcode ballot markers like the ExpressVote specifically. medium.com/@jennycohn1/st…
17/ I had thought that Harris county, the largest county in the state, had bought the ExpressVote, but I can't find a reference to that, so I probably was wrong. But historically, Harris County's electronic election-related equipment has been problematic.
https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1035042916949872640
18/ We must keep an eye on Harris County (the largest county in Texas) & ensure it switches to HAND MARKED paper ballots (w/ scanners), not the ExpressVote or other touchscreen system. It currently uses paperless/unverifiable touchscreen voting machines. verifiedvoting.org/verifier/#year…
19/ BTW, I don't mean 2 suggest that scanners are immune from hacking. They can be easily hacked too! But if they count hand marked paper ballots, there is a software independent record of voter intent that can be manually counted 2 confirm the legitimacy of the electronic tally.
20/ Here is @lulufriesdat's video from DEFCON showing that ES&S 650 optical scanners--used in 24 states, including Texas--can be rigged to flip votes with less than 1 minute access. In other words, #handmarked #paperballots are necessary but insufficient. facebook.com/NowThisPolitic…
21/ To have evidence-based elections, a term coined by @philipbstark (inventor of risk limiting audits), we need #handmarked #paperballots, a transparent and secure chain of custody, and post election manual counts (meaningful audits or full recounts).
22/ Like many (perhaps most) states, Texas has a long way to go toward evidence-based elections, and if we let it continue to buy more touchscreens, we will never get there.
23/ Meanwhile, according to McClatchy, some Texas counties have already replaced PAPERLESS unverifiable touchscreen machines with new PAPERLESS unverifiable touchscreen machines from Hart Intercivic. This is incompatible w/ a functioning democracy. mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-wo…
24/ As far as the midterms, there are too many attack vectors to plug them all, especially given Texas's use of unverifiable voting machines. But here are two strategies outlined in a booklet by election integrity advocate @BevHarrisWrites that can help. blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.pdf
25/ The first strategy--having poll observers at each precinct to photograph the voting machine results tapes (after polls close) & then comparing them to the reported results--is one I've been promoting, but we really need campaigns like @BetoORourke's to take the lead.
26/ If we deploy this strategy, I suggest focusing on the 5 largest counties with touchscreen machines. At a minimum, Harris County. If there are anomalies, it can provide the basis for an election challenge & perhaps (as we've seen recently w/ a GOP primary in GA) a new election
27/ Many (perhaps all) of the suggestions on this election integrity tip card that @Jodi______ and I prepared would help in Texas too. It would be great if @BetoORourke's campaign would circulate it to voters as a postcard.
28/ As for screenshotting election night results as they come in (suggestion two in the booklet in post 24), @SwissTriple_M and I (especially M) gave a trial run of this re: the #OH12 special election. Pls let us know if u would like to help with this in Beto's race v. Ted Cruz.
@IndivisibleTX17 @Indivisibletx7 @indivisibleTX25 @IndivisibleTX14
@indivisibletx19 @CommonCauseTX @LWVTexas @ACLU @ACLUTx @dale_e_ho @JayRiestenberg @TXCivilRights @TXDemocrat @TexasTribune @indivisibleteam @SwingLeftTX32
@indivisibletx19 @CommonCauseTX @LWVTexas @ACLU @ACLUTx @dale_e_ho @JayRiestenberg @TXCivilRights @TXDemocrat @TexasTribune @indivisibleteam @SwingLeftTX32
29/ Correction re: Posts 9 & 10. The total number of votes cast in the runoff was 44k (not 26k) of which MORE THAN HALF came from PAPERLESS (unverifiable) TOUCHSCREEN machines in Bexar & Brewster counties. This is incompatible w/ a functioning democracy. enrpages.sos.state.tx.us/public/sep18_3…
30/ The mistake in my original posts 9 and 10 was that I was looking at the primaries, not the runoff. But the ratio ended up being more or less the same in the corrected version.
31/ I just called Bexar county and it does NOT give voters the option of hand marking a ballot if they request to do so at the polls. Some states/counties with touchscreen voting machines provide this option. Not Bexar. #ProtectOurVotes
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