Good news! The New York State Board of Elections voted yesterday to REJECT certification of ES&S’s ExpressVote XL all-in-one barcode ballot marking device (BMD), a glitchy & hackable touchscreen that ES&S has hoped officials would stupidly buy in lieu of pen and paper. 1/
I’m still trying to find out @NYSBOE’s reasoning, but I know one problem was that the ExpressVote XL runs on Windows 7 and can only mark ballots in English. If the XL were a person, it would be a MAGA. 2/
The XL has other problems. It runs the barcode “paper ballot” back under the printout AFTER the voter reviews it, which experts say means it could be maliciously programmed to eff with the barcode that is the only part of the “paper ballot” counted as your vote. 3/
Unfortunately, Philadelphia did choose the ES&S ExpressVote XL all-in-one ballot marking device (BMD), ignoring expert advice. I wrote about that unfortunate decision here in 2019. 4/ salon.com/2019/02/16/phi…
Here, for @NYRBooks, I also discuss problems involving the ES&S ExpressVote XL in PA in 2019. ES&S lobbyists had secretly donated to the two decision makers who then chose this system in Philly in lieu of #HandMarkedPaperBallots (pen & paper). 5/ nybooks.com/daily/2019/12/…
ES&S downplays problems w/ its systems. Thus, the only way to really know what occurred is with public records requests. @RGarella did one in 2019 & found that, “‘poll workers & technicians reported issues with the new [XL] machines at more than 40 % of polling locations,’ ... 8/
...yet the voting machine vendor ES&S said that ‘it was ‘simply inaccurate’ for anyone to imply there were widespread issues.’” 9/
As written, HR1 would allow jurisdictions to force all in person voters to use the ExpressVote XL or other glitchy touchscreens, as long as voters have the option to vote by mail. That isn’t good enough. 10/
At a minimum, HR1 must be amended to require that jurisdictions give voters the option to mark their ballots with a pen (rather than a touchscreen) AT THE POLLS (for jurisdictions w/ in person voting). We Please tell ur members of Congress. TY. #PensAtThePolls 11/
13/ HR1 should also ban all-in-one BMDs like the ExpressVote XL and Dominion ICE, which run the ballots back under the printer head after voters inspect them. #ExpelTheXL#ICETheICE
14/ As a vendor, ES&S is arguably America’s most concerning. I wrote about ES&S’s history through the present here. link.medium.com/q5zQHyEPrdb
15/ Stacey Abrams’s group, Fair Fight Action, created this document detailing concerns with voting machine vendor ES&S, which had the Georgia contract before Georgia switched to Dominion. fairfight.com/wp-content/upl…
16/ When ES&S had the Georgia contract, 127,000 black votes vanished from its system. theroot.com/exclusive-thou…
17/ Black voters also vanished from machines serviced and maintained by ES&S in Shelby County, TN in 2015, as reported by Bloomberg. cc: @WandaHalbertbloomberg.com/features/2016-…
18/ I interviewed @benniejsmith about the vanishing black votes in TN here; he made the discovery.
ES&S downplays problems w/ its voting machines. To know what occurred, we need public records requests. @RGarella did one in 2019 & found that, “‘poll workers & technicians reported issues with the new machines at more than 40 % of polling locations,’...1/ nybooks.com/daily/2020/10/…
...[in Philadelphia], yet the voting machine vendor ES&S said that ‘it was ‘simply inaccurate’ for anyone to imply there were widespread issues.’” 2/
Although the GOP wants everyone focused on Dominion, it is ES&S that for years has arguably caused the most concern among election-integrity advocates and experts. I wrote about these concerns in detail here. 3/ link.medium.com/y3LUkCASrdb
Dear @timkaine. This is an awful idea. Even if the senate refuses to convict, we NEED a public trial and to put witnesses under oath. We need answers and sunlight. What we don’t need? A bipartisan slap on Trump’s wrist so that Congress can sweep these crimes under the rug.
Targeting African Americans in 2016, white nationalist encouraged these voters to “vote” via text. Text voting doesn’t exist. 4900 people apparently fell for the scam, & were thus disenfranchised. Vaughn now faces up to ten years in prison. 1/
Oh no. “Paper-based” sounds like touchscreens (BMDs), not #HandMarkedPaperBallots (pen and paper). Hope I’m wrong and that it’s not ES&S with its effed up software verification tool. 1/
Just what we didn’t need: “In recent days, Fox has taken a sharp turn toward a more extreme approach as it confronts a post-Trump ratings dip — the result of some of its furthest-right viewers moving to outlets such as Newsmax & One America News...” 1/ washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/medi…
...and some middle-of-the-roaders apparently finding CNN or MSNBC more to their liking.” 2/
Fox has thus “decided to add an hour of opinion programming to its prime-time offerings. The 7 p.m. hour will no longer be nominally news but straight-up outrage production.” 3/