11/17/20: Chris Krebs, the head of the
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of
Homeland Security continues to stand by this statement: “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes,
changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” during the recent election
In fact, CISA has continued to update a website exposing what it calls
election-related “rumors.”
Most have been trumpeted by Lame Duck Don.
 |
Mr. Krebs. |
For example, could some rigged computer software program steal all
kinds of Trump votes and give them to Biden?
CISA explains:
The vast
majority of votes cast in this election will be cast on paper ballots or using
machines that produce a paper audit trail, which allow for tabulation audits to
be conducted from the paper record in the event any issues emerge with the
voting system software, audit logs, or tabulation.
What about dead people voting by the tens of thousands?
“Election officials regularly remove deceased individuals from voter
registration rolls based on death records shared by state vital statistics
agencies and the Social Security Administration,” CISA notes. “In other
instances, a voting-age child with the same name and address as their deceased
parent could be misinterpreted as a deceased voter” casting a ballot, “or lead
to clerical errors.”
What about vote totals for president in some districts that are higher
than vote totals for down-ballot races? Is this proof that local officials are
“padding” the vote for Joe Biden?
Nope. CISA explains that voters typically vote for most of the top
offices on any ticket, president, senators, governors in requisite years. They
may skip voting for school board candidates or judges about whom they know
nothing.
Was it true that the Department of Homeland Security was monitoring for
counterfeit ballots?
No.
What about this particular rumor? “If results as reported on election
night change over the ensuing days or weeks, the process is hacked or
compromised, so I can’t trust the results.”
Don’t be stupid! CISA lays out the obvious:
In fact, no
state requires that official results be certified on election night itself.
Fluctuations in unofficial results reporting will occur during and after
election night as more ballots are processed and counted, often including
military and overseas ballots, and validated provisional ballots. Variations in
state processes may also mean ballots cast through different methods (e.g.,
early in-person voting, mail-in voting, and election day voting) are counted
and unofficially reported in different orders. Official results are released
after rigorous canvassing (verification) and certification by local and state
election officials.
How about this: An observer for Team Trump saw an official in (name a state)
filling in ballots for Biden!
Not really what was happening:
Some ballots
cannot be read by a ballot scanner due to issues such as damage or misprinting.
Some jurisdictions hand count such ballots, while others create duplicate
ballots so they can be read by a ballot scanner. Some jurisdictions permit
election officials to enhance markings on ballots that are too faint to scan
following a process to adjudicate the voter’s intent based on state law. In
jurisdictions where duplication of unscannable ballots is permitted, election
officials duplicate the ballot precisely to ensure all the voter’s choices are
transferred correctly to the new ballot. Both the original and duplicate ballot
are labeled and logged so that the two ballots can be tracked and audited. Many
jurisdictions require bipartisan teams of two or four personnel to complete
this process and verify that votes are accurately transferred to duplicated
ballots.
If you like, you can go to the website, yourself, particularly if you are an ill-informed doofus. It might
help
A few more examples should suffice.
True or false: A malicious actor can easily defraud an election by printing
and sending in extra mail-in ballots?
False, you dolts!
“Security measures meant to weed out fake ballots include signature
matching, bar codes, water marks, and even precise paper weights.”
Finally, what about those dirty rats in Arizona who gave Trump voters black
Sharpies to mark their ballots! What about that? They marked their ballots
proudly, but machines couldn’t read the marks!
Okay. Nope.
Election jurisdictions allow voters to mark ballots with varying
types of writing instruments, based on state law and other considerations such
as tabulation system requirements. Poll workers are required to provide
approved writing devices to voters.
Although felt-tip pens, like Sharpies, may bleed through
ballots, some election officials have stated that ballot tabulation equipment
in their jurisdictions can still read these ballots. Many jurisdictions even
design their ballots with offset columns to prevent any potential bleed through
from impacting the ability to easily scan both sides of ballots.
If a ballot has issues that impact its ability to be scanned, it
can be hand counted or duplicated, or adjudicated by election officials, who
use defined procedures such as chain of custody to ensure protect [sic] ballot
secrecy and integrity. Many states additionally have “voter intent” laws that
allow for ballots to be counted even when issues such as bleed-throughs or
stray marks are present, as long as the voter’s intent can still be determined.
*
IN ONE of the least surprising developments since the election
was held and the votes were tallied, President Trump has a hissy-fit and fires Krebs for saying that the election was
not rigged.
*
A desire to make sure election results
can be trusted.
Then, a “big victory” for Trump. In
Trump’s words. In reality, a puny victory, or no victory at all.
Election officials in Clark County,
Nevada (one of the states the president insists he won with ease, but didn’t)
announce they cannot call one race with
confidence. Ross Miller, the Democratic candidate for a seat on the County
Commission from District C, appears to have defeated Stavros Anthony by 10
votes – out of 153,000 cast. But 139 ballots have discrepancies.
Trump tweets exultantly,
Big victory moments ago in the State of Nevada. The all
Democrat County Commissioner race, on the same ballot as President, just thrown
out because of large scale voter discrepancy. Clark County officials do
not have confidence in their own election security. Major impact!
Really, it can be mind-boggling to see
all the idiot sh*t this president will tweet. First, he’s too dumb to see that
Democratic officials are holding up a victory for one of their own – indicating
a desire to make sure election results can be trusted.
Second, Trump is too dumb to understand
percentages. Even if all 139 discrepancies are found to be votes that don’t
count, or even if all of them go to Miller, that’s an error rate of .009
percent.
Minimal impact, Tangerine Fool.
POSTSCRIPT: We regret to inform our
readers, but Team Trump has canceled a planned campaign where
celebrities would discuss COVID-19. The original cost was estimated to be $300
million. Celebrities would do their best to help ordinary Americans in
“defeating despair” over the rampant spread of virus.
One contract, for $15 million to Atlas Research, had drawn close
scrutiny, since Atlas was run by a business partner of HHS spokesman Michael
Caputo, and tasked with lining up actual celebrities to speak.
It turned out, most celebrities had no interest in shilling for
the Trump administration and telling the American people, basically, “Hey, it’s
not as bad as you think, and President Trump is doing a great job! Even if people keep dying every day, by the hundreds.”
Total number of public service ads actually run, before the
campaign was shelved: zero. Yes. Zero.
BLOGGER’S
NOTE: As for that contested race in Nevada, Stavros, the Republican candidate,
asks for and deserves a recount.
In the
end, Miller’s margin of victory increases to 15. Trump,
for some reason, does not tweet out the sad news.
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