Dear Vote Protectors,
We hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
With the 2019 election behind us, it is a good time to reflect on where we’ve been and give an update on what’s new.
We have been working since January to bring reliable, verifiable, straightforward hand-marked paper ballots to Philadelphia. Although Philadelphians were forced to vote on the hackable and unauditable ExpressVote XL three weeks ago, most Pennsylvania counties have chosen hand-marked paper ballots.
Many other counties were able to learn from the voting machine debacle here and in Northampton County. Our hard work highlighted problems with the ES&S ExpressVote XL, and other counties took notice. Just this week, Bucks County selected handmarked paper ballots! So far, only Philadelphia, Northampton, and Cumberland counties will use the ExpressVote XL in 2020—unless it’s decertified (more on that below!).
Yes, our Board of Elections, with the support of the mayor and governor, wasted $29 million on the ExpressVote XL. However, POVPhilly is still working hard to get a better voting system for next April. And while we are mainly concerned with election security, we are also mindful that as long as the ExpressVote XL is used, Philadelphia and Pa. taxpayers will need to pay millions every year for software licensing, maintenance, storage, and supplies.
Now we are starting to see some action to get rid of the ES&S ExpressVote XL in Pennsylvania. Jill Stein filed a motion in Federal Court to halt use of this system anywhere in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, POVPhilly continues to build multiple paths to bring more secure voting to Philadelphia. This groundwork takes time, but it is critical if we are going to #StopTheMachine and protect our vote!
|
|
ACTIONS INCLUDED IN THIS UPDATE
- Contact District Attorney Krasner and Attorney General Shapiro
- Contact Governor Wolf
- Contact Secretary Boockvar at the Department of State
(For a complete list, see our Take Action page)
|
|
|
About that recent election: unverifiable, insecure and illegal
The Board of Elections quietly certified the election results on Monday November 25th. Are they accurate? We hope so. We have no reason to believe they aren’t. The problem is, there’s no evidence to show that they are accurate either.
We are not at all comforted by the Risk Limiting Audit (RLA) pilot that Philly did on Thursday, November 21st. The audit can show that the electronic tallies match what is printed on the vote summary cards. However, it can’t show that the vote summary cards reflect the voters’ wishes. Why not? Two reasons. 1.) The ExpressVote XL doesn’t allow meaningful verification of votes. 2.) We don’t know that the vote summary cards audited came from the actual voters.
Lax security on the vote summary cards from this election left us with no way to know if they are the same cards we tried so hard to read in the dimly lit voting booths. This video shows how we found the cards sitting in a large, unlocked, and unguarded warehouse. Our full report shows how security lapses left ballot cards open to theft or post-election tampering, including traditional ballot-box stuffing. Ballot box stuffing is even more of an issue, now the Pa. election code has eliminated provisions to track ballot cards. (More about that below.)
The pattern of legal violations and irresponsible treatment of election evidence was remarkably consistent. Philadelphia’s post-election ballot procedures failed to meet the clear requirements of the Pa. State Department and Pa. Election Code. Although POVPhilly officially put the Board of Elections on notice before the canvass started (see video), the Board dismissed our concerns, ignored the law and failed to follow new State Department procedures designed to protect ballot secrecy and safeguard our votes.
As a result, the election was carried out illegally on uncertified equipment. The Board members who certified the results on Monday are subject to criminal penalties of up to one year in prison — if anyone still cares to enforce our election laws.
|
|
ACTION: Contact District Attorney Krasner and Attorney General Josh Shapiro
DA Larry Krasner: Call 215 686-8000 / email justice@phila.gov / message on Facebook
AG Josh Shapiro: Call 717 787-3391 / email AG info@attorneygeneral.gov / message on Facebook
Ask them to enforce the law and defend the security of our elections and hold officials accountable for lax security—plus their failure to follow Department of State post-election processes required with the ExpressVote XL.
|
|
|
BIG NEWS: Jill Stein is enforcing her settlement agreement in court
On October 2, many of us joined Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party’s 2016 candidate for president, as she put our state on notice that the ES&S ExpressVote XL is not an acceptable voting machine because it doesn’t meet the terms of the Stein v Cortés settlement agreement.
Now that Pennsylvania missed the 30-day deadline to decertify the ExpressVote XL, Stein has started legal action. On Tuesday, November 26, she filed in federal court to force Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to decertify it.
“Instead of listening to the widespread public outcry against the unreliable ExpressVote XL, including from leading national election integrity experts, Pennsylvania officials have insisted on ramming these machines through in a secretive, heavy-handed process,” said Stein. “They’ve left us no other option but to ask the court to enforce our settlement agreement to ensure that Pennsylvania voters have a voting system they can trust in time for the 2020 elections.”
The court papers state that the Department of State violated three requirements of the settlement by certifying the ExpressVote XL.
- The settlement requires machines to produce a “voter-verifiable record of each vote.”
The ExpressVote XL does not. It counts bar codes, which voters cannot verify.
- The settlement requires machines to use a “paper ballot.”
The ExpressVote XL does not. It just prints a summary card showing what a voter entered via a computer.
- The settlement requires machines to allow for a “robust audit” of vote tally accuracy.
The ExpressVote XL does not. It does not, because there is no way of knowing if the ballot summary cards actually match voter intent.
The judge gave Boockvar until December 12 to respond. This story has been covered widely in the press, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Associated Press, and the Wall Street Journal.
|
|
ACTION: Support the decertification effort
|
|
|
Pa. weakened ballot security with an amendment to the Election Code
On Tuesday, POVPhilly sent out an action alert about a quickly introduced legislation amendment to House Bill 227. The amendment changed the Election Code to get rid of an important security measure, numbered ballot stubs. Ballot stubs ensure each voter votes using the ballot they are given—not one brought from outside—and make ballot-box stuffing more difficult.
Until last Tuesday, Nov 19, HB227‘s subject was “School Director Petition Signatures.” Then Pa. Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill added an amendment she said would address Election-Day problems in York County. Written with the assistance of the Department of State (video), this radically changed the bill. Unfortunately, it does not actually solve the issues York County experienced. Those issues would be solved by better training, better ballot paper, and more scanners. Nevertheless, the amended bill was approved in the next two days by the Senate and the House, giving lawmakers little time for consideration and giving the public little opportunity for input.
Despite POVPhilly’s letter to Governor Wolf and our members’ phone calls, emails, and social media posts, the governor signed the House Bill 227 (now Act 94) into law just before the Thanksgiving holiday.
|
|
ACTION: Tell Governor Tom Wolf you are disappointed that he removed requirement for ballot stubs
Contact Governor Tom Wolf: Call 717-787-2500 / email via online form / message on Facebook / Tweet @GovernorTomWolf
By signing House Bill 227 (now Act 94), Wolf put the integrity of our elections at risk.
|
|
|
We’re all in this together. Hang on and keep fighting for free, fair, and auditable elections.
Your friends at
Protect Our Vote Philly
Reply to this newsletter, comment on Facebook, or tweet to @POVPhilly. We’re always happy to hear your thoughts and ideas.
|
|
About POVPhilly
Protect Our Vote Philly is a coalition working to bring accurate, accessible, and secure voting systems at a fair cost to Philadelphia. We believe the gold standard for election integrity is:
- hand-marked paper ballots
so we know our votes are cast as intended
- the best possible accessibility devices
so every voter can vote with maximum privacy and independence
- mandatory risk-limiting audits after every election
so we can be confident that every vote was counted as cast.
Protect Our Vote Philly is a watchdog over the Office of the City Commissioners, which operates elections in the City of Philadelphia. Because we believe Philadelphians have a right to the most secure voting system possible, we strongly oppose the system that the Commissioners selected, the ES&S ExpressVote XL, as well as the rushed and secretive process used to select it. The ExpressVote XL falls far short of the gold standard. It endangers our votes and wastes our resources. We are dedicated to stopping it.
|
|
|
|
