Thread by @jennycohn1

Progress! States are finally replacing touchscreen voting machines—which provide no means 4 voters 2 know if their votes were recorded correctly—w/ new touchscreen ballot markers, which also provide no means 4 voters 2 know if their votes were recorded correctly.

Wait what? 1/

2/ Touchscreen voting machines—both w/ & w/o so-called Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATS)—are a disaster bc, among other reasons, voters lack X-ray vision and thus can’t know if the vote as recorded inside the machine matches the VVPAT and their intended selections.

3/ With touchscreen voting machines, regardless of a VVPAT, the only thing actually counted as your vote is whatever is recorded as your vote INSIDE the machine, which you can’t actually verify due to your lack of x-Ray vision.

4/ Thus, when election officials describe these scraps of paper as “voter verifiable,” it is incredibly misleading bc the VVPAT itself isn’t actually counted as your vote.

5/ The only time VVPATS count are if a manual audit is conducted (many states don’t require them and most those that do conduct little more than a spot check) or during manual recounts, which often aren’t required or even allowed.

6/ Manual recount laws, where they exist, require manual recounts only if the candidates are w/in a few percentage points or less of each other, which simply informs hackers that they can avoid a manual recount by flipping enough votes to exceed the specified margin.

7/ Fortunately, most touchscreen voting machines were bought back around 2002 and thus have finally reached the end of their miserable lives. And Congress has recently allocated $400 M to help states “upgrade.”

8/ Unfortunately, rather than upgrade to hand marked paper ballots, which voters can verify without X-ray vision and which can be counted by hand in public or on optical scanners, some counties are embracing yet another touchscreen device: electronic ballot markers!

9/ These electronic ballot markers generate something that vendors, election officials, and the media are having as a “paper ballot.” What they don’t mention is that these computer marked paper ballots include both written text and barcodes (or qr codes) that humans can’t read!

10/ Like a VVPAT, humans CAN
read the text to see if it matches their intended selections. But like a VVPAT, the text isn’t what’s counted as your vote!! Rather, the only thing counted as your vote is the barcode (or qr code) that humans can’t read & thus can’t verify!

11/ The most popular iteration of these new generation touchscreens is the ES&S ExpressVote, which is starting to spread thru the country like a disease. Every 3 minutes another contract for these devices is signed. Ok not that fast, but it is happening & no one is stopping it!

12/ Exhibit A. Kentucky's largest county (Jefferson) is excited about its new ExpressVote touchscreens from ES&S.

13. Exhibit B. On April 18, 2018, Tyler County, West Virginia welcomed its new ExpressVote machines.

14. Exhibit C. Two more West Virginia counties were demonstrating and conducting training for their new ExpressVote machines in April 2018 as well.

15. In March 2018, TEN TENNESSEE COUNTIES decided to buy ES&S ExpressVotes for use by all of their voters.

16. Per this March 2018 ES&S blog post, NJ has also fallen for the ES&S ExpressVote and one county is even going to let ES&S conduct its municipal election for it. Nothing weird about that, right? Cuz we vet these people. Right? Wrong.

17. Counties in Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas, and Wisconsin have recently fallen prey to ES&S ExpressVote touchscreen machines as well.

18. In post 17, note how the WI election official gushed not only about the ES&S ExpressVote touchscreen ballot markers, but also about the ES&S DS200 optical scanners, which come w/ the ExpressVote markers & are used 2 tabulate those "paper ballots" w/ the barcodes we can't read

19. "The modeming of the results from the DS200 is so easy." That's what the WI official in post 17 seemed to like best about the ES&S DS200. He makes a point. With concerns about potential hacking at an all time high, who wouldn't want their votes transferred over a MODEM?

20. I kid of course. "Modeming" vote totals is a terrible idea if election security matters to you at all. Making matters worse, in 2015, ES&S "upgraded" its DS200 modems from simple analog modems to CELLULAR MODEMS.

21. According to IT and election security expert Andrew Appel (Princeton), these new ES&S cellular modems make it easy for a “man-in-the-middle” hacker to alter votes! freedom-to-tinker.com/2018/02/22/are… …

22. Here's a sourced Thread by @SwissTriple_M explaining how Wisconsin agreed to let ES&S upgrade to cellular modems in 2015 without federal certification!

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23. The cellular modems in ES&S DS200 scanners were found by EI advocateJohn Brakey & his team. “There r currently over 26,500 ES&S DS200 optical scan vote-counting machines in 25 states. It is not yet known how many of them have the cellular capability.” democraticunderground.com/12512657652

24. As shown above, Wisconsin approved the switch to cellular modems for its ES&S DS200 scanners the year before the 2016 election. Per John Brakey, Rhode Island did too. So did Florida (screenshot below). mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=…

25. The clerk of Jefferson County Kentucky has advised that ES&S offered these cellular modems for the County's new DS200 scanners, but KY law precludes "modeming" so the County opted out.

26. I'm currently investigating what other counties and states have decided to "upgrade" to ES&S ExpressVote touchscreen ballot markers and ES&S DS200 scanners with cellular modems. Will provide updates if/when I have them. TY. #ProtectOurVotes

27. You can check whether your own county and state use the ExpressVote and/or ES&S DS200 scanners with the tool linked here. verifiedvoting.org/verifier/ But you will have to ask your state and county election officials directly about whether the cellular modems.

28. As you've probably noticed, I'm very focused on ES&S lately. I worry that their new bar-coded "paper ballots" (from their ExpressVote touchscreens) & DS200 scanners w/ cellular modems are spreading unchecked and will be the nail in the coffin of what's left of our democracy.

29. P.S. Don't panic if your county has bought the ES&S ExpressVotes. The question is whether they are using them for all voters (inappropriate) or limiting them to voters who are unable (due to disability, old age) to hand mark their ballots (appropriate).

30. Call & email ur state & county election officials to demand HAND MARKED PAPER BALLOTS--not COMPUTER MARKED paper ballots (except for voters w/ disabilities)--counted manually or on optical scanners. Tell them scanners MUST NOT HAVE MODEMS & to avoid ES&S DS200s, which ...

31. come with cellular modems unless the county or state specifically opts out.

32. And watch your candidates for Secretary of State carefully. Communicate with them on Twitter and tell them to advocate for HAND MARKED paper ballots!

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33. Do the same with your existing Secretaries of State. A lot of them (and a lot of the candidates) don't have many followers and so they may actually engage with you. They will likely notice you engaging with them publicly. Let me know how it goes.

34. If u engage with election officials on Twitter, make sure to use BOTH HASHTAGS: #handmarked #paperballots. Thanks to these touchscreen ballot markers and their bar-coded "paper ballots," the #paperballots hashtag is no longer enough.

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35. BTW, if u follow my TL, you probably know that the SOS of Georgia—one of five states that exclusively uses paperless touchscreen voting machines—is champing at the bit for these new touchscreen ExpressVote ballot markers and their bar-coded “paper ballots.”

36. The Georgia legislature came “this close” to passing a bill that included specific language allowing this type of barcode balloting. In fact, ES&S SR VP Kathy Rogers apparently helped draft that language!

37. It turns out that ES&S is basically a continuation of Diebold, the vendor founded by felons, which hired a convicted cyberfelon to do its programming months b4 the 2000 election. Georgia bought its machines from Diebold.

38. Here’s a sourced Thread I wrote long ago about the #DieboldFelons. I’ve done several.

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39. ES&S bought Diebold in 2009 But the DOJ forced it to sell bc the combined company accounted for 70% of US voting equipment.

40. Per a consent decree, Diebold’s assets were later divided between ES&S and a Canadian Company called Dominion. But it seems that a lot of Diebold’s key personnel, including Kathy Rogers and some programmers, went to ES&S and remained there.

41. Here is an article with a list of some of the key Diebold personnel who moved to ES&S around 2009. m.dailykos.com/stories/2010/2…

42. In the reference section of its recent bid to Colorado, ES&S equated itself with Diebold! It referred to Georgia’s contract with Diebold from 2002-2009 as its own (in addition to identifying itself as GA’s vendor from 2009-the present). sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections…

43. No wonder GA Secretary of Kemp is so desperate to enter into a new contract with ES&S. They are effectively the same vendor founded by criminals, brought GA is current unverifiable touchscreens, ushering in a series of “upset” Republican victories starting in 2002.

44. I discuss some of those 2002 “upset” Republican victories in Georgia in the sourced Thread linked here.

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45. The AJC, Georgia’s local paper, also described ES&S as Georgia’s current vendor. Inside track indeed...

46. Here is a deeper dive Thread into my specific concerns about electronic ballot markers. Even without barcodes they shld be avoided, except for those voters who are unable to hand mark!

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47. This next point is important: there is NO substitute phrase for “HAND MARKED paper ballots.” “Voter verified,” “voter verifiable,” “voter marked,” etc. are all trick phrases invented by vendors that mean either hand marked OR COMPUTER MARKED!! Don’t fall for it!