Thread by @GrassrootsSpeak

When I dug into Mitch McConnell’s election results so many people said

“Now do Lindsey Graham”

I get it.
Lindsey got 672,941 votes in 2014.
In 2020 he DOUBLED his votes to 1,369,137.
Really😳

So I wanted to share more questions on Kentucky & some from South Carolina

THREAD👇

I initially was able to spot patterns in Kentucky since counties used different voting systems & results were inconsistent. Counties with unusual big wins for Mitch all used ES&S voting machines

But it’s harder to detect patterns in South Carolina since they use ES&S state-wide.

Recently while revisiting Kentucky’s data it led me down a path to South Carolina.

First I saw:
👉2,134,996 Kentuckians voted for the President
and
👉2,134,446 voted for the Senate
A difference of exactly 550?
That number felt tiny🤔

So then I reviewed Kentucky’s historic data.

In past elections, 20,000+ folks voted for President but left down-ballot races blank. That changed in 2020’s election:

2008: 25,687 (1.41%)
2016: 20,684 (1.07%)
2020: 550 (0.03%)

This number still stuck out so I went back further...before KY’s shift to electronic voting🤔

The change in the numbers since Kentucky shifted to electronic voting machines is stunning.

👉71,498 left down-ballot races blank in 2004 (3.98%)

👉Only 550 left down-ballot races blank in 2020 (0.03%)

Wow?!?😳
So I compared KY to other states & that’s how SC jumped out at me.

South Carolina data historically showed many folks voted for President but not down-ballot:

2008: 49,538 (2.58%)
2016: 53,134 (2.53%)
2020: -1,775 (-0.07%)

Suddenly it all flipped in 2020.

MORE folks came out to vote in Lindsey Graham’s SENATE race yet left Trumps race blank?

Seriously?! So in an incredibly intense Presidential race folks in South Carolina suddenly came out in record numbers to vote in the SENATE race to elect Lindsey Graham? Coming out for Grahams race, but not Trumps, seems far-fetched.

It defies both logic & historical data.

But the numbers suggest Lindsey Graham became wildly popular😳 From his last election he more than doubled his votes

2014: 672,941
2020: 1,369,137
An increase of 103%

Yet Trump only increased his votes by 20% since his last election🤔

2016: 1,155,389
2020: 1,385,103

Again, a common element is the voting machine manufacturer ES&S.

South Carolina has a long history with ES&S. And the state just bought new ES&S equipment (the same models used in Kentucky). This despite a computer expert trying to point out the states problematic ES&S history.

It makes you wonder, would there have been an impact if South Carolina hadn’t purchased new ES&S equipment?

Wouldn’t it be interesting to look at a state who used ES&S for decades & switched to another type of voting machine in 2020?

Well we can. Consider the case of Georgia...

Many people don’t realize that prior to Georgia’s 2020 election they had a long term relationship with ES&S

At the time of the controversial 2018 gubernatorial race between Stacey Abrams & Brian Kemp (the man who at that time ran Georgia’s elections) they used old ES&S machines.

The 2018 Georgia election resulted in multiple lawsuits. And they raised similar down-ballot questions to the ones I saw in KY & SC.

Of 3.9M+ votes cast, about 160,000 of them left the Lieutenant Governor race blank. That was 80,000 fewer votes than other down-ballot races.

The numbers suggest that folks voted for the Governor, then left the Lt Governor race blank & then voted in the other down-ballot races🤔

Neither logic or historic data supported these results but they couldn’t dispute them since the paperless ES&S machines couldn’t be audited.

And court documents revealed even more extraordinary details.

For example, a precinct had 7 voting machines.
On 6 of the machines Dems won every race.
On the 7th machine...Republicans won every race🤯

A statistician described this scenario as “less than one in one million”

The lawsuits resulted in a judge ordering Georgia to replace all voting machines by 2020. Kemp tried to purchase new ES&S machines but he was ultimately forced to switch to Dominion.

From 2002 when Diebold/ES&S entered GA to 2020 when they left...
the GOP won EVERY Senate race.

In 2002’s election, when Georgia switched to all electronic voting, a popular Dem lost re-election in an ugly controversial upset. Sen. Max Cleland was a decorated Vietnam vet who lost 3 limbs in the war. But the GOP candidate who won accused him of not being patriotic enough😳🤔

Just like KY & SC, results & data demonstrably changed when states shifted to electronic voting.

Maybe that’s why 209 out of 227 countries use #Paperballots

Georgia changed after shero Stacey Abrams energized the voters...but also after she helped get ES&S out of their state🤔

It’s healthy to ask legitimate questions in a democracy when the questions are driven by data analysis & factual info.

But Georgia couldn’t audit elections til local GOP were forced to change to auditable systems. And not until the GOP lost did they undertake manual hand counts.

A non-transparent system that only allows one party to conduct audits & get answers is broken. Georgia was forced to spend years in the courts to get change. Too many states have similar issues.

That’s why a Federal approach is critical. We need impactful legislation passed ASAP

The GOP desperately fight to control their own state elections.

KY, SC & GA exemplify why they wanna keep control.

We know the GOP gerrymander & frantically pass laws to curb voting.
So let’s not draw a line at questioning illogical electronic voting results.

#RecountKentucky

And in case anybody is wondering....the GOP's Big Lie about Dominion has already started working.

Republicans are canceling orders & choosing not to buy Dominion. Which sends them running into the arms of ES&S...
I recently wrote an article on it👇

dcreport.org/2021/04/12/dom…

UPDATE: In writing this thread I left out some relevant data related to Lindsey Graham doubling his 2014 votes in 2020. It may have been confusing without it.
So here's a link to a mini thread providing a spreadsheet with numbers & more info for context

https://twitter.com/GrassrootsSpeak/status/1388330525325152259?s=20