The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Nov. 8th, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

State and federal election officials termed most problems encountered in the Nov. 5th Presidential election as routine, with quickly discredited bomb threats and ballot shortages among the worst issues of the day.

The hoax bomb threats, which the FBI quickly traced to a Russian domain, briefly affected some precincts in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin.  Most locations were operational in less than an hour.   In Fulton County, Georgia, 32 precincts received threats, according to the Associated Press.   

In Cambria County, Pennsylvania, a ballot printing issue prevented reading by the optical scanners, according to the New York Post.  Working ballots arrived by 1:15 pm and were used for the remainder of the day.   Polling hours were extended due to the problem.

In Boston, WBUR reports that the Massachusetts Secretary of State is investigating ballot shortages in five to ten precincts.  The state had provided adequate ballots, but apparently city election officials didn’t distribute all that was allocated to the precincts and didn’t answer the phone when calls came in for more.   

In Milwaukee, access panels to power and USB ports on some optical ballot readers were unsecured when over 30,000 of the over 106,000 absentee ballots were tabulated, according to Votebeat.  The panels were secured, the machines reset, and the affected ballots were rerun.  

We’ve linked to the local reporting at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl. 

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency – Statement from CISA Director Easterly on the Security of the 2024 Elections
FBI – FBI Statement on Bomb Threats to Polling Locations

Reuters – Hoax bomb threats linked to Russia target polling places in battleground states, FBI says

New York Post – Here’s the real culprit of the massive Election Day problems in Cambria County, Pennsylvania
WBUR – State opens investigation into Boston’s ballot shortages on Election Day
Votebeat WI – Milwaukee starts over with counting of absentee ballots, after open locks are discovered on tabulators

Check Your Voter Registration:

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State
• USA Vote Foundation – Registration, Eligibility, State Election Office Links
• Vote.Gov – Register to Vote in Your State
• Vote.Org – Check Your Registration to Vote
  
  

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ElectionProblems #BostonNews #GeorgiaNews #PennsylvaniaNews #WisconsinNews

The post Hoax Bomb Threats, Ballot Shortages, and Unlocked Access Panels Appear to be the Worst of the 2024 Election Problems appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute radio report & podcast for October 21, 2022

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Today’s Links

Articles:
NPR – Hand-counting ballots may sound nice. It’s actually less accurate and more expensive

Associated Press – Some in GOP want ballots to be counted by hand, not machines
Nevada Independent – How should Nevada hand count ballots? Nye County, state election officials disagree
MIT Election Data & Science Lab – Voting technology
MIT Election Data & Science Lab – Learning From Recounts
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project –  Using Recounts to Verify the Accuracy of Vote Tabulations

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Few election officials would ever recommend counting ballots by hand unless it’s absolutely necessary.   It’s long, tedious & expensive  work which is prone to error.   Yet that’s exactly what’s being promoted by 2020 election deniers around the country.

Over the last year, several state legislatures have considered hand-count bills, including New Hampshire, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Washington and West Virginia, fueled by conspiracy theories that optical ballot readers have been hacked.

In July,  a long-time Nye County, Arizona election official resigned along with her staff, citing false allegations of fraud based on these conspiracy theories.  Then in August, the county commission decided to hand count the ballots from the county’s 32,000 registered voters.  

Election experts point to multiple studies by the MIT Election Data & Science Lab and other researchers, showing where optical reader results were compared to hand recounting.  The difference is so tiny, it doesn’t justify the time and expense of hand counting, which can take hours or even days longer, and adds substantial additional expense.  A Wisconsin hand recount in the 2016 Presidential race found error rates for Donald Trump at 0.159% and Hillary Clinton at 0.161%, which had no impact on the outcome and an expense of over $3 Million dollars.  

The interim Nye County clerk, Mark Kampf, is proposing a parallel process, which will use tabulators and hand counting.  The State of Nevada, meanwhile, just proposed forms and standards for hand counting.   

Articles and election technology studies are linked at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org  

For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl

The post Hand Counting Ballots Takes Longer, is Less Accurate, and Costs More. So Why is It Being Proposed Around the Country? appeared first on American Democracy Minute.