Thread by @jennycohn1

.@TheDemocrats must try to ensure that Rs don’t cheat in 2022. I suggest a standalone election security bill (robust manual audits & #handmarkedpaperballots) AND a national ballot image audit campaign, including a DOJ investigation into Florida’s ballot image destruction. 1/

https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1290409045505880064

We are unlikely to get the election security bill, but Ds must try anyway. Ballot images are created by scanners automatically, but too many jurisdictions in Florida and presumably elsewhere destroy them. @TheDemocrats shld demand that officials preserve & produce the images. 2/

Ds shld challenge tech developers across the US to develop software to analyze the images. We need lots of eyes on the images so that we aren’t just relying on one vendor to tell us whether the image supports the result. My friend Ray Lutz has already developed such a program. 3/

There is time for ballot image audits in 2022. We just need to stop election officials from destroying them. 4/

Lutz has already successfully piloted his ballot image software. Ballot images are public records, which means we don’t need the GOP to agree to pass a new law to do this. We just need to stop wayward election officials from breaking the law by destroying images. 5/

Ballot images audits are not a replacement for robust manual audits. But they are likely our only chance to audit most important races in 2022 in a meaningful way. Most races are NOT currently audited meaningfully or at all. 6/

7/ One of America’s foremost election-security experts, Professor Alex J. Halderman, also recognizes the value of ballot images. @jhalderm drive.google.com/file/d/1es0dPp…

8/ TY to @susanpynchon1 for calling my attention to Halderman’s remarks about ballot images. We can do this. Again, the beauty with ballot images audits is that they don’t require an act of Congress. We are not asking anything terribly burdensome of election officials either.

9/ We just need election officials to stop deleting the ballot images and to then make them publicly available, which is entirely reasonable as they are already public records. #ProtectOurVotes

10/ My interview with @raymondlutz re: his Audit Engine ballot i@age auditing software.

11/ Ray Lutz has already piloted his ballot image auditing software in three Florida counties: Collier, Volusia, & St. Lucie (which preserved their images). Here’s a link to the case study. Clear Ballot has software to do this too. auditengine.org/audit-results/…