by Deborah Davis
I wanted to check the handling of absentee ballots on the Dominion 5.5 Democracy Suite. While the system more than ever seems to be a cumbersome dud on the face of it, I found at least three things which cause great concern. You may download the manual at the link below. The absentee/mail in portion begins on page 239. Bear in mind the difference in absentee and in person ballots seems to be only the lack of a qr code on the absentee ballot.
- Directions instruct absentee ballots to be checked for any staples folds or creases that could jam them in the scanner. It also says grease or marks. So if a mechanic or other hard working person unknowingly has something on their hands that makes a mark it could kick their ballot out for adjudication or simply hide it so it does not get counted. Adjudication hiding has also been found on in person ballots. Instructions say to unfold absentee ballots and fold them the other way to flatten them. More folding possibly making a mark that will kick them to adjudication or hiding.
- Also noted is to take care that scan codes do not get placed in the vote areas. Dominion can’t even guarantee the system will put its own information somewhere other than what should be the very purpose of it. This amounts to another means by which ballots can be sent to adjudication or hiding or cast a vote other than the voter intended.
- Not the least of the concerns is after scanning a batch the batch has to be accepted or rejected. Pollwatchers can not be close enough to see what key was pressed. Adjudication is supposed to have teams of two but I know of no safeguards for scanning. At least now a ballot could have company going to wherever it is that rejected batches go. How is anyone to know if the batch was rejected and subsequently rescanned or not?
An election is just a spreadsheet. It needs ro put votes for each candidate in a column per race and total the votes for each by candidate by contest to declare a winner or necessity of a runoff. This is what hand counting would do without any of the risks named above.
I am sure there are other problems as well. Dominion Voting systems are about half hatched. There is a legal requirement called fitness of merchantability that something has to be fit for what it was purchased to do. Per Legal Information Institute fitness of merchantability is “The implied warranty of merchantability, defined in U.C.C. § 2-314, is an automatic legal guarantee that goods sold by a merchant are fit for their ordinary purpose, safe, and of reasonable quality.” Clearly Dominion causes more problems than it solves. Our legislature and leaders have ignored this and kept throwing good money after bad to keep from providing what they by oath and law are required to provide and respond to our pleas.
In summary I still believe voting absentee is the way to avoid the qr code. All the Dominion shortcomings and more follow to in person ballots but with absentee voting you can keep a copy and know you voted directly and not via a qr code. Below is also the elections calendar which should advise when you can start requesting an absentee ballot for the primary and general and the last day to request. The last day to request an absentee ballot is 11 days prior to the election and to be counted they need to be received by the time the polls close on election day. I recommend hand delivering your absentee ballot to your elections office in person. If you want to feel like you went to the poll deliver it on election day but bear in mind the sooner you return your voted ballot the sooner nobody can vote in your name fraudulently.
If you have questions I will try to get an answer for you.
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