Election season is upon us once again. I thought I would provide an update on election integrity and some recommendations about voting as well as my recommendations on who to vote for in our most important local contested primary races.
Primary Elections
Early Voting starts February 20th with the final Election Day on March 5th. For more information on voting locations check the Kerr County Elections website (it’s not there yet).
Hand Count Update
As you know, the push to hand count ballots for the November Constitutional Election failed. This would have been a perfect time to put hand counting to the test as only 8,296 (21.33%) of 38,892 registered voters in Kerr County cast their votes. In the September 11th Commissioners Court meeting, I stated that we would likely have less than 10,000 votes cast, which would take only 5 hours to count on Election Day with 30 tally teams (120 people, excluding poll watchers). We had over 400 volunteers signed up to hand count. Unfortunately, there were too many naysayers and my motion to hand count failed.
We had another chance to try a hand count in the upcoming Kerr County Republican primary election. Hand counting had the support of the majority of our Republican Party County Executive Committee, which has the authority to adopt the voting system for their primary (Texas Election Code Sec. 123.001). However, Paul Zohlen, current Kerr County Republican Party Chair, without any discussion with the Executive Committee, unilaterally signed an agreement with the Democrat Party Chair, Lynette Wedig, to conduct joint elections in the upcoming primary elections. This agreement was brought before the Commissioners Court on Dec. 27th for approval. Through questioning it was confirmed that: 1. This is the first time that Kerr County has had a written agreement between the Republican and Democrat Parties to conduct joint elections. 2. We have always held Republican and Democrat Party primaries in the same voting locations both for early voting and election day voting. We simply have separate check-in tables where voters get ballots for their respective parties. County Clerk Ian Collum made a statement that it would save the county money if (hypothetically) the parties decided to conduct separate elections as the county would then have to provide another 20 polling places (one for each voting precinct) on election day. However, we have never done this before, so why the need to do it now? The only reason to have a written agreement between the Republican and Democrat Party Chairs is to control the adoption of the voting system (i.e., the use of machines vs. hand counting paper ballots) and sure enough, within the agreement they selected the Hart Verity 2.4 voting system for use in the primary elections. Unfortunately, the Commissioners Court approved the agreement by a vote of 3 – 2 (Don Harris and I voted against it). Our Republican Party Executive Committee was sold out by Paul Zohlen, who then promptly cancelled the January Executive Committee meeting.
The good news is that the Gillespie County Republican Party will be hand counting the results from their upcoming primary. Last year their County Executive Committee voted to use paper ballots and the Texas Chapter 65 hand count method for their primary elections this year. I sat in on one of their training sessions on Jan. 16th and was very impressed with their organization and commitment to election integrity. They came up with a different tally form (approved by the SOS) and use the echo tally system, which ensures that all 3 tally markers have the same counts. A four-person tally team with one or more watcher looking over the caller’s shoulder yields 100% accuracy. They are training more than enough volunteers to enable them to complete the hand count on Election Day within an hour or two of polls closing. I wish the Gillespie County Republican Party complete success in hand counting their ballots. Perhaps with their success, we may have better luck convincing our Commissioners Court to hand count ballots for the November general elections.
Paper Ballots
Please, always ask for a paper ballot when you vote. Do not use the touch screen voting machines that HAVA requires for disabled voters. Unlike the touch screen machines (black boxes that we can’t look inside, can’t review the software, can’t verify that they cannot be connected to the internet, etc.), paper ballots provide an audit trail that cannot be manipulated. I believe that citizen election audits will become more frequent, especially since the Texas Election Code was just amended to make cast vote records and ballot images available for public inspection no later than the first day after the final canvass of an election (see attached ADDENDUM, Legislative Update, HB 5180). However, the Hart InterCivic Verity 2.4 voting system that Kerr County currently uses does not generate a paper print out of the ballot cast that the voter can review to confirm that his/her choices were recorded accurately. Texas law requires all electronic voting systems to generate a paper ballot for tabulation purposes by 2025. Unfortunately, this will cost the taxpayers around $250,000 to upgrade our equipment.
Taiwan recently held their national elections. Despite the Chinese Communist Party interference, despite adverse predictions, and despite overwhelming opposition pressure, the People’s Party in Taiwan won the national elections. They did it using paper ballots – no machines! They hand counted 23.5 million paper ballots, all on Election Day. Paper ballots and hand counting are how you restore election integrity and the people’s confidence in results.
Argentina also just elected populist, right-of-center candidate, Javier Milei as their new President. Millei was an underdog up against the mainstream media and the National Socialists who wanted to remain in power by any means necessary. Yet the people of Argentina were able to stop the steal by using paper ballots and hand counting all 25 million ballots all on Election Day, just a few hours after the polls closed. No machines. No mail-in ballots. No drop boxes. No mules.
Last Friday, in a Federal Court in Atlanta, Georgia, Professor J. Alex Halderman was able to hack an electronic voting machine and change election results. He did it in the courtroom in a few minutes in front of U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg using only a pen! Professor Halderman said: “Back in September 2020, the Court granted … Plaintiffs access to one of Georgia’s touchscreen ballot marking devices (BMDs) so that they could assess its security…I extensively tested the machine, and we discovered vulnerabilities in nearly every part of the system that is exposed to potential attackers. Our report explains how attackers could exploit the flaws we found to change votes or potentially even affect election outcomes in Georgia, including how they could defeat the technical and procedural protections the state has in place.” This was a Dominion voting machine that was hacked, but the point is all the electronic voting machines have similar problems, so why do we trust our machines? Just because we have no proof that they have been hacked? The complete redacted Halderman report is available at: Halderman voting security report – DocumentCloud.
Bottom line – demand the use of paper ballots!
Mail In Ballots
Hatch Smith, who is running for State Representative against Wes Virdell, is apparently relying on flooding us with campaign mailers, the most recent of which includes a mail in ballot application to make it easier to obtain a mail in ballot (or make it easier to cheat?). Mail in ballots is one of the most vulnerable areas for election fraud. I encourage everyone to shred these mail in ballot applications and vote in person. The Secretary of State encourages election staff to give the benefit of any doubt to the voter and therefore count the ballot. However, when people use mail in ballots, it’s very difficult to verify their ID with only signature verification by elections personnel untrained in signature verification. Please vote in person, and vote for Wes Virdell!
Audits and Voter Roll Cleanup
A local team has been formed to review our county voter rolls and to work with the County Voter Registration staff to clean the rolls. They are equipped with software that quickly compares our voter rolls with other public databases such as the DPS and county property tax records to compare and verify names and addresses. They have uncovered several areas of concern and will be meeting with the county voter registration staff next week to address these concerns.
Brent Bates is planning to conduct an audit of the last Kerrville mayoral election. There seems to be an unusually heavy amount of voting by mail during these elections as opposed to elections that only decide city council races. See the chart below which shows the historic numbers of mail in ballots over the last six Kerrville municipal elections. Quite odd. A detailed citizen audit may shed light on whether there is anything of concern.
If nothing else, efforts to clean our voter rolls and carry out audits may serve as a deterrent to any parties thinking of manipulating election outcomes. Look for more on efforts to clean up our voter rolls and the results of the citizen audit in future updates.
Closing
These are critical times with much at stake, so please exercise your constitutional duty. Get out and vote! If possible, vote in person, ask for a paper ballot, and vote on Election Day, March 5th. If mobility is a problem, don’t forget that you can use drive through voting at all our voting locations, so you never have to leave your car. Under the Texas Election Code during Early Voting, the elections officer must submit a daily report to the Secretary of State. This report includes the name of each voter. This is one area of our Election Code that needs to be changed. Reporting names as opposed to just reporting the number of in person voters and mail in ballots received allows anyone who has access to the data to make a projection of how many ballots the other party needs to win specific races of importance (using voter names and their voting party history). The necessary mail in ballots could then “magically” be postmarked just prior to Election Day. This is why it is best if you wait and vote on Election Day (keep them guessing). If you are a registered voter, but don’t regularly vote, you may find that someone else voted on your behalf, most likely by mail. Several people have told me that when they turned up to vote in person, they were told by the elections staff that they already had voted! These voters are allowed to cast a provisional ballot, but they never get counted as there is no way to determine whether someone else voted or the voter voted twice, so only the first ballot is counted.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading the update. Please share this with anyone you think might be interested.
Sincerely,
Rich Paces
Kerr County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Luke 12:2 ”For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”
Very good analysis.