IFA Post-primary Update – Indiana First Action
Hello Everyone,
We wanted to drop everyone a note expressing how truly grateful we are for the tips we received regarding the recent Primary Election.
We are aware of, and are analyzing, the questionable results from several races throughout the State including Curt Nisly’s results which do not appear to have fluctuated at any point throughout the count. We will release our findings of these analyses soon.
Key Points
In the meantime we would like to reiterate a few key points that Hoosiers must keep in mind pertaining to our elections:
1) Over 60% of our state does not use paper ballots of any type. Therefore, when we detect questionable results, there really is no recourse for those candidates. You might ask for a recount, but think about that for a second? How are you going to recount votes that only exist on a memory stick? How can anyone involved in election administration prove how they were cast onto that memory stick? Answer: THEY CAN’T.
2) The use of these black box voting machines prevent your meaningful participation in and oversight of elections. The machines are effectively a layer of plausible deniability for election officials. These election officials cannot prove to you that those machines function as claimed. Can you actually watch a vote get cast from the screen to the memory stick? Can you actually visibly see, with your eyes, the software working? The answer is NO. That machine is a medium between you and your “ballot” and you as a voter give up every bit of control once you press the button to submit your “ballot”. This is what we mean when we say it removes your ability to oversee elections and elections truly do belong to the people.
3) The political parties will not help you. They like the status quo. They enjoy spending millions of YOUR tax dollars on machines built by private companies that hide behind Intellectual Property clauses in their contracts. That’s right…. Your county clerks and election boards have been signing contracts with vendors that explicitly state that 3rd parties are not allowed to look under the hood of the little black boxes that YOUR tax dollars paid for. That means there is no independent objective scrutiny of these machines that you use to express your voice and the political parties are just fine with that. In fact they are completely cool with these private companies sponsoring clerks conferences throughout the state. The incumbent corrupticians must go.
4) Don’t be fooled by the “these machines are inspected by an accredited lab right here in Indiana” mantra. In less than 30 minutes of internet searching about VSTOP, you will find directors of the organization with a one sided political ideology, troubling ties to foreign adversaries, and what’s with the degrees and books written about algorithms and computer programs? By the way, only 5% of the machines are inspected and in their certification protocol, machines will be approved for use if they can connect to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Cellular internet connections as long as those functions are “disabled”. Funny really because we thought these machines were never supposed to be connected to the internet anyways so why do these machines even have those capabilities?
Recommendations
There really is so much more to share but in the interest of time, we recommend the following:
1) Get involved. Become a poll watcher or worker. Run for office. Help a candidate. Do whatever you can to familiarize yourself with election processes.
2) Continuously expose your elected officials to the point we raise above. Ask them to return to paper ballots and paper pollbooks while reestablishing precinct voting. There is a little paper ballot initiative out of Arizona that costs less than $.25 per ballot with currency grade security features and a mechanism that allows voters to check their ballot after it has been counted so do not let them answer that it is cost prohibitive.
Again we thank everyone for the tips we received and we are working through vetting all of them.
