1/ Just spoke to election security expert @beckerdavidj — he made some points I'm not seeing elsewhere that I'd like to share:
Every vote in the battleground states in this election was cast on a paper ballot (except for a small number of folks with disabilities). Every one!
Every vote in the battleground states in this election was cast on a paper ballot (except for a small number of folks with disabilities). Every one!
2/ He actually listed all the states that did all paper ballots from memory, off the top of his head: FL, GA, NC, VA, PA, OH, MI, WI, MN, IA, AZ, NV.
"You can't hack a paper ballot," he points out.
"You can't hack a paper ballot," he points out.
3/ 95% of all votes in the U.S. this year had a paper trail. That's far more than in 2016! In fact, in 2016, GA had almost all electronic voting and Pennsylvania was pretty split. He points out that this gave us incredible transparency this year.
4/ Becker, like other experts, said unprompted to me that this was the most transparent and secure election he’s ever seen. And he is not just a mouthpiece (he’s actually quite critical of some electronic voting, and sees areas for improvement in the process). He meant it.
5/ Though he’s not crazy about the 5% of votes cast on all electronic (which, again, wasn’t happening in any battlegrounds) he did note there are good ways to check for intrusions — and all that all those machines are looked at pre and post-election. Not enough talk about that.
6/ For all the B.S. "statistical analysis" that is just people misreading data, there have been no allegations about voting machines being compromised.
None.
This is important because it's something we'd actually know post-election by looking!
And, again, we have the paper.
None.
This is important because it's something we'd actually know post-election by looking!
And, again, we have the paper.
7/ He also pointed out just how many layers of guardrails we have now. For instance: ballots are specially printed on special paper with special ink with special barcodes being run against records across counties and states to ensure only eligible voters are casting ballots.
8/ What about the mail-in votes? He noted out that this election was ALWAYS going to be a GIANT mail-in election regardless of the pandemic, and he was prepared. 1 in 4 votes cast in 2016 were mail-ins, and right now we’re looking at about ~40% of votes cast being cast by mail.
9/ Given all the wild stuff going on, I asked him what’s giving him optimism. He said “courts have largely held up, they have held this campaign to the burdens of proof. They have regularly and repeatedly and unanimously rejected all these claims…"
10/ "That’s why you’re seeing all these crazy press conferences… they’re making claims that if these same lawyers went into court and made these claims they’d be disbarred. They are crazy conspiracy theories and courts have held that up.”
11/ He also noted Republican, Democratic and non-partisan election officials — even those who have received death threats — are standing strong and holding the line on reality. “These people are heroes,” he said.
12/ I didn't know this, but he also told me election officials from out of state are volunteering and traveling to Georgia to help with the recount — the largest ever — and are going to hear (likely today) confirmation Biden won Georgia by more than 10,000 votes.
END/ There is so much noise out there. People like @beckerdavidj are doing nonpartisan work on election security and have been for decades. His voice is reassuring and centering amidst all the conspiracies. He's worth a follow and your time.
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