RBC I Rio Blanco County commissioners passed a resolution 2-1 Tuesday to defund vote tabulation machines, following extended public comment. RBC is the second county in the U.S. to pass such a resolution, following months of activist efforts by national groups aimed toward the larger goal of pushing hand counts for all ballots, dismantling vote-by-mail systems and implementing stricter voter ID requirements.
Those in favor of the resolution argued that Dominion voting systems are vulnerable to exploitation via the internet, backed by claims from partisan “forensic reports” that claim to prove manipulation of Mesa County voting records in the 2020 election.
Those opposed to the measure, including election officials, challenged that claims of vulnerability were not backed by evidence, or made by people with direct knowledge of the local vote verification process.
“Dismantling our electronic voting systems puts us in violation of national election laws and makes our elections less secure, and not more secure” said Dr. Bob Dorsett, who also noted that local voting systems have been “proven accurate” by the Colorado County Clerks association, audits in the Colorado Election Center and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Department of Homeland Security.
These reassurances have failed to convince everyone though, thanks in part to those “forensic reports” conducted on unauthorized copies of a voting system computer hard drive from Mesa County.
Three total reports, published by the “United States Election Integrity Plan” (USEIP) each feature hundreds of pages of technical jargon, analysis and breakdowns of potential exploitation vectors for dominion machines.
The first report, published in September 2021, claimed to examine differences between two separate “images” of one Mesa County voting machine from before and after a “trusted build” software update occurred. It states the comparison showed evidence of “systematic deletion of files,” claims repeated during Tuesday’s BOCC meeting.
Harri Hursti, one of many independent internet security experts who attended MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s “Cyber Symposium” event last August, said the images in question were “no evidence of anything being deleted from anywhere.” Hursti further demonstrated that according to election deniers’ own presented data, the two images being compared were in fact not even copied from the same computer and thus could not be used for comparison.
Additional evidence for this assertion include BIOS logs from each “image” which showed two completely different computer models with distinct hardware and software capabilities.
Despite this gap between election integrity claims and countervailing evidence from the first report, USEIP has since published two additional forensic reports. These reports were cited on Tuesday by proponents of the resolution to defund Dominion tabulation machines.
Rangely resident Don Davidson stated that the reports demonstrated, among other things, a failure to maintain “trackable system logs,” unexplained creation of “extra databases during vote tabulation,” the “inability to reconcile databases with final vote counts” and the presence of “numerous wireless devices within the machines.” Further explanation of what these claims meant was not provided Tuesday.
Hand-count proponents noted that the ability to connect to the internet in particular made the tabulation machines vulnerable to attack, though page 31 of the second report stated that it could not conclusively prove any machines were connected to another network, including the internet, “without examining the physical system, as well as every other device connected to the network.”
Commissioners Gary Moyer and Jeff Rector both voted in favor of the resolution, and repeated similar arguments for their reason to do so. “The question is, can they be hacked into, not will they be hacked into, not if they have been hacked into,” said Moyer, emphasizing that the decision was not based on any alleged wrongdoing or actual voter/election fraud in Rio Blanco County. Rector echoed Moyer’s statements. He said the goal was “to get somebody at Dominion to go ‘you know what, maybe we need to look at this, maybe there is a problem with this.’” Dominion, the company who creates the machines, has opted to challenge integrity claims in civil court, rather than the court of public opinion, a strategy Moyer called “troubling.”
Multiple current and former election judges for RBC spoke against the measure, such as one Meeker resident who said “show us the proof that the internal modems can be accessed from any computer in the world” and emphasized that those making claims had not participated in the election process. Pat Dagget shared her experience volunteering for the election board, noting, “I truly feel that everyone who questions this process needs to volunteer and come in and sit on that board.” Others emphasized that hand counts would likely make counts less accurate, due to human error.
Other opponents of the measure proposed a compromise, suggesting that the board hold off on defunding the machines for now to provide more time for analysis of the facts. Other suggestions included a comparison of tabulation machines to a hand count to demonstrate their accuracy. These suggestions were rejected for a variety of reasons.
Commissioner Ty Gates voted against the resolution, primarily because of the potential of liability for the county. RBC Attorney Don Steerman explained that change would necessitate accommodations for disabled people, accommodations which are currently provided via the Dominion electronic voting system. “We’re probably going to need to find something that is ADA compliant by November,” said Gates.
The board could reverse the decision with another resolution before it takes full effect in this year’s midterm election, though it is possible Moyer will not be in office following the upcoming recall election. Additionally, Commissioner Rector has also indicated his intent to resign from the board, though it is not clear when that will happen.
You can view the entire meeting referenced in this story at https://youtu.be/K8CXwpR1tMU?t=1065
National discourse about election integrity has filtered down to Rio Blanco County, prompting questions about the process of voting. Just before the 2020 general election, the HT ran an article that outlined the steps of the voting process, from ballot creation to votes being counted. Here is that information again:
BIRTH OF A BALLOT: Once the Colorado Secretary of State certifies the content for a ballot (making sure signatures on petitions have been verified, etc.) the ballot is confirmed.
“It goes by precinct,” according to RBC Clerk and Recorder Boots Campbell. Depending on where you live in the state, you vote for different candidates and pay into different special districts. These are called “splits.”
These ballots are proofed, approved and sent to the printer. Local election judges— two from each party affiliation—stuff the ballots into secrecy sleeves, then into barcoded envelopes. The barcodes allow election officials to track who has voted without connecting the voter’s name to their ballot.
LOGIC AND ACCURACY TESTING: Voting machines are tested in-house prior to ballots being mailed. Election judges fill out test ballots, tally the results, and then run those test ballots through the scanner. Results from the machines are compared with the hand tally to ensure accuracy.
BALLOTS MAILED: Twenty-two days before an election county clerks’ offices mail ballots to every registered voter. The responsibility for registering to vote, for choosing a party affiliation, for changing an affiliation, and for changing mailing addresses, are solely in the hands of the voter. You can register online or in person (check your voter registration status here: https://www.sos.state.co.us/voter/pages/pub/olvr/findVoterReg.xhtml).
Be prepared to provide verification of your identity, however you register. If you’ve moved, be aware that ballots cannot be “forwarded” to your new address like regular mail. Ballots that are marked undeliverable are locked in a vault at the clerk’s office, and are considered “dead ballots.” Voters can return ballots either by mail — don’t forget your stamp and make sure you mail it back in time, drop it in a drop box, deliver it to your local voting location, or go vote in person during posted voting hours.
BALLOT COLLECTION: Once the ballots have been mailed out, election officials begin collecting the “live ballots” from the post office and the dropboxes. Two officials — never from the same party — collect ballots and scan the barcodes into the SCORE system on the same day they are collected.
SIGNATURE AND VERIFICATION: When it’s time to count the votes, four election judges, with two Democrats and two Republicans each, are on hand to verify signatures with the voter’s registration record. If two judges disagree, the ballot goes to another panel of judges. If the signature can’t be verified, the voter is contacted and has eight days to “cure” their ballot. Walk-in voters have to produce identification that matches their voter registration record.
BALLOT COUNTING: One judge opens the envelope and hands the sleeve and ballot to the next judge, who takes the ballot out of the secrecy sleeve and hands it to another judge who straightens the ballots and stacks them. The fourth judge puts the ballots in batches of 25 to be scanned. After scanning, results are copied onto a removable device before being downloaded into an election management system on a separate machine. Each time, election workers compare a physical printout of results from the tabulation machines to what is put in the system. Batches are also audited by the state after the election for accuracy with a risk-limiting audit, and a bipartisan canvass board verifies the results.
END OF THE LIFE CYCLE: “Dead ballots” are kept for 25 months after each election, and then taken to the landfill by election officials for an “observed burial.”
By LUCAS TURNER | [email protected]om
For further research on this subject:
[2] Tina Peters, Colorado elections clerk, indicted in voting system breach – Washington Times
[3] County Beat: Nov 16 meeting report
November 16, 2021 Rio Blanco County BOCC Work Session 1
Mike Lindell Doubles Down on Conspiracy Claims After Pal Tina Peters Is Arrested (yahoo.com)
Judge’s Election Nightmare Comes True: The MyPillow Guy Has Entered the Chat (yahoo.com)
Assessing the Various Claims in Mike Lindell’s ‘Absolute Proof’ (thedispatch.com)
Michigan lawsuit makes wild claims about voter turnout (freep.com)
Pingback: Citizens urge caution with CCITF | Rio Blanco Herald Times | Serving Meeker, Rangely, Dinosaur & Northwest Colorado
Pingback: COUNTY BEAT: April 12 Meeting | Rio Blanco Herald Times | Serving Meeker, Rangely, Dinosaur & Northwest Colorado
if you want to report on any thing it seems to me that you would leave your BIASED opinions to you self and report the facts! You should spend a little time in research of the subject ,IE Mesa co.findings and you will have a better scope of the Problems with electronic VOTING Machines . Please do Your job Without BIAS Thank you!