UPDATE:
Michigan’s secretary of state issued a statement saying the Antrim County glitch has “no basis.”
“The misreporting of unofficial Antrim County results was the result of an accidental error by the Antrim County Clerk. The hardware and software did not malfunction and all ballots were tabulated correctly. However, the official accidentally failed to update the software used to collect voting machine data and report unofficial results,” the statement said. “To report unofficial results, county clerks use election management system software to combine electronic tabulation totals and submit a report of unofficial results. Because the clerk did not update the software, even though tabulators correctly counted the ballots, these accurate results were not properly combined when the clerk reported the unofficial results.”
JUST IN: Long statement from #Michigan The Secretary of State refutes the allegations in a pointed manner.
“Rona McDaniel’s false claims have no basis.” pic.twitter.com/mleW3yc4pF
— Lynsey Mukomel (@lynseymukomel) November 6, 2020
ORIGINAL POST:
The Michigan Republican Party revealed Friday that a software error caused 6,000 Republican votes to be included in the Democratic total. The issue was ultimately resolved when officials in Antrim County manually recounted the ballots, causing their county to swing toward President Donald Trump. According to the chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, 48 of the state’s 83 counties operate the same Dominion Voting Systems software.
Currently, problems are brewing in Georgia in Spalding and Morgan counties after it was revealed that a software update on Monday night caused voting machines to crash on Election Day.
said Marcia Ridley, Spalding County Board of Elections Commissioner POLICY Dominion Voting Systems has performed an update on the machines. KnowInk, which creates electronic poll books for voter signatures, also created an update. Both phenomena are abnormal, Ridley said.
“It’s something they never do. I’ve never seen them update anything the day before the election,” Ridley explained, saying she had no idea what the update contained.
Dominion Voting Systems said the software had no impact in Georgia.
“Re Gwinnett – There is no evidence of any system software issues,” said Kay Stimson, vice president of government affairs for Dominion Voting Systems Washington Times. in e-mail. “I understand that the system crashed at certain points while processing resolved ballots due to an issue with the workstation configuration. Our technicians worked with the county to resolve the issue, and election officials began re-evaluating the ballots the next day.”
These “errors” are a concern, especially with close voter turnout in many states. Common factor: Dominion voting systems. The system is used in many states across the country, including key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.
MI uses Dominion’s Democracy Suite voting software to tally votes. According to a brochure published for the company, MI ranks 1st among major suppliers. By 48 counties @MIGOPoperate this software. Notice where else it is used? Key battlegrounds: NV, AZ, MN, WI, MI, FL, GA, FL. pic.twitter.com/GaHtWGh1Y2
— Beth Baumann (@eb454) November 7, 2020
Denver Post Office raised concerns about these machines earlier this year as election officials across the country scrambled to make sure their machines were secure from Russian hackers ahead of the November election:
The machines, called ballot marking machines, are equipped with touch screens to record a voter’s choice. Unlike machines equipped only with a touch screen, they print paper documents that are scanned using optical readers. South Carolina voters will operate them in Saturday’s primary election.
The most steep solution available, they are at least twice as steep as the hand-marked ballot option. They were vigorously promoted by three voting equipment suppliers that control 88 percent of the U.S. market.
Some of the most popular ballot marking machines, manufactured by industry leaders Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems, record votes using barcodes that the human eye cannot decipher. Scientists say that’s the problem: Voters may receive printouts containing the exact names of their chosen candidates, but due to the hack, the barcodes do not reflect those choices. Because the barcodes are tabulated, voters would never know that their ballots benefited another candidate.
Even on machines that don’t operate barcodes, voters may not notice whether a hack or programming error skewed their selection. A University of Michigan study found that only 7 percent of mock election participants notified election workers when the names on their printed ballots did not match the candidates they voted for.
…
Key counties in the key states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina have purchased ballot marking machines. The same applies to counties across much of Texas, as well as Los Angeles County, California, and all of Georgia, Delaware and South Carolina. Machine certification was often streamlined in a hurry to get the machines ready for the presidential primaries
Ballot marking devices were not intended as primary tools for casting votes, but as accessible options for people with disabilities.
One of the most intriguing aspects of this case, as he emphasizes NOQ Reportis that Dominion Voting Systems has facilities in over one-third of the United States. They never had a lobbyist in Washington until last year when they did hired Brownstein Farber Hyatt & Schreck, a lobbying firm. One of the account’s chief custodians is Nadeam Elshami, former chief of staff to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
It should be investigated whether this was a fault, especially regarding swing states. In areas where this system is used, votes must be manually counted so that voters know their votes have been counted correctly. A fault is likely in one of the counties. A fault occurring in multiple counties in multiple states appears to be a potentially larger systemic problem.
