Tag: Paper Ballots

Georgia Lawsuit on Alleged Weakness in Dominion Machines Set for Trial, with a Push for Paper Ballots

Just the News

A 2017 lawsuit in Georgia regarding alleged vulnerabilities in Dominion Voting Systems machines is set for trial in January, following the public release of a report on the possible issues earlier this year.

The Atlanta Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia is hearing the case of Curling v. Raffensperger, where the plaintiffs are asking to switch from electronic voting machines to paper ballots. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and State Election Board members were first sued by the Coalition for Good Governance and several individual voters in 2017.

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Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen: Paper Ballot Statute, Ban on Voting Machine Internet Connectivity Among 2023 Legislative Priorities

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Although he has been in office for only a few days, Secretary of State Wes Allen has some legislative priorities in mind for the 2023 session.

During an appearance on Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5 on Thursday, Allen said he hoped to pick on two efforts from a year earlier dealing with paper ballots and the connectivity of voting machines.

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In Similar Cases to Lake’s and Finchem’s Lawsuit over Electronic Voting Machine Readers, Judges Did Not Order Sanctions Against Attorneys

Rachel Alexander

The judge in Kari Lake’s election challenge lawsuit declined to award sanctions against her attorneys, although he did order her team to pay the costs of the government defendants. However, in a lawsuit Lake filed earlier this year with Mark Finchem contesting the use of electronic voting machine readers, U.S District Judge John Tuchi, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, sanctioned her attorneys. 

That lawsuit was filed in April and Tuchi dismissed it in August. Maricopa County asked for sanctions on the grounds that attorneys brought claims to court that were “demonstrably false,” citing “vague” allegations that machine counting can produce inaccurate results. Tuchi said the attorneys acted “recklessly” and in “bad faith.” He ordered Lake and Finchem’s lawyers to pay Maricopa County’s attorneys fees. He warned others considering similar lawsuits, “It is to penalize specific attorney conduct with the broader goal of deterring similarly baseless filings initiated by anyone, whether an attorney or not.”

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Kari Lake and Mark Finchem Denounce Maricopa County Supervisor’s Motion for Sanctions over Election Integrity Lawsuit

Rachel Alexander
Mark Finchem and Kari Lake

Trump-endorsed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lawsuit along with Trump-endorsed State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona Secretary of State, in April to block the use of electronic voting machines to count ballots in the 2022 election. The Maricopa County Supervisors responded last week with a motion requesting sanctions against the pair and their attorneys, which include former Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, asserting that the suit was “frivolous.” 

Finchem tweeted, “The threatened action by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, is nothing more than the attempted weaponization of the judicial process against the political process. If they can’t stand up to scrutiny for elections, that’s their problem — not our problem. Elections must be secure and trustworthy, Maricopa County has demonstrated neither is the case in the last election. “

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Wisconsin Republicans Vote Against Decertifying 2020 Election Results, Removing Assembly Speaker

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Wisconsin Republicans over the weekend rejected resolutions to rescind the state’s Electoral College votes that were cast for President Joe Biden and to remove Robin Vos as speaker of the state Assembly.

Delegates at the state party’s annual convention outside of the capital city of Madison rejected both resolutions, while adopting close to 50 others that include calling for all ballots in the state to be cast on paper and hand-counted on Election Day, according to the Associated Press.

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Tennessee Lawmaker Makes the Case for Paper-Only Ballot Mandate

Peter D'Abrosca
Bruce Griffey

A bill introduced in late December by a member of Tennessee’s House of Representatives would mandate that only paper ballots can be used for voting.

House Bill 1662 would mandate. “the use of paper ballots instead of voting machines, and would require such ballots to have a non-visible, non-producible security feature such as a watermark, fluorescence, or digital hologram changed from election to election to prevent fraudulent duplication,” and would also allow poll watchers to video record proceedings at polling locations, according to a Monday press release.

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Tennessee Lawmaker Proposes a Return to Voting Without Ballot-Marking Machines

Morgan Nicole Veysey
Bruce Griffey

Tennessee Representative Bruce Griffey (R-75) submitted a new bill to protect election safety. The bill would have elections in Tennessee revert to paper ballots and instate other safety measures. The bill was filed for introduction earlier this week. 

According to the Tennessee General Assembly, the bill is explained as;

As introduced, prohibits the use of voting machines; requires that elections be conducted using hand-marked paper ballots; authorizes pool watchers to record video at the polling place; requires the coordinator of elections to prescribe certain security measures for paper ballots.

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Pennsylvania Court Allows Lawsuit Against Use of Electronic Voting Machines to Proceed

Bradley Vasoli

A Pennsylvania court this week issued an opinion allowing litigation attempting to block the use of electronic voting devices in Philadelphia, Northampton and Cumberland counties to proceed. 

Commonwealth Court Judge Kevin P. Brobson (R), currently a candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court, ruled that two advocacy groups and several state residents have standing to challenge the use of ExpressVote XL systems.

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State Election Commission Dismissive of Citizens’ Concerns About Election Integrity and Said the Issue of Paper Ballots Should be Taken Up with Legislators

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – While citizens spoke about issues related to election integrity before the State Election Commission at their regularly scheduled meeting Monday at the William R. Snodgrass Tower, commission members were defensive and dismissive of the citizens’ concerns and said that the issue of hand-marked paper ballots should be taken up with members of the Tennessee General Assembly.

There were about three dozen people in attendance at the meeting, not just from counties adjacent to Nashville such as Williamson and Rutherford, but as far as away as Cannon, Hamilton, Hardin and Putnam counties as well.

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Williamson County Citizen Group Presents Solutions to Restore Trust in Tennessee’s Elections

Laura Baigert

FRANKLIN, Tennessee – The Williamson County Voters for Election Integrity citizen group presented solutions to restore trust in county and statewide elections in Tennessee that was damaged in the November 2020 election, in large part due to the actions of others in other states.

The group, comprised of business professionals including two former chief information, a library science data analyst, a 40-year IT professional, a process engineer and several communication executives, over the last 10 months has been “studying voting machines, voting processes and the need to institute best practices to help government officials fix election vulnerabilities found in both Williamson County and across Tennessee following last November’s voting,” said team member Frank Limpus in a press release. (INSERT LINK TO PRESS RELEASE HERE)

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Legislation Would Require Paper Ballots for Future Elections in Ohio

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by Todd DeFoe   An Akron lawmaker wants Ohio to start using paper ballots for its future elections. House Bill 204 would prohibit counties from acquiring so-called direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines or any marking devices or automatic tabulating equipment that does not use a paper ballot. “There are many benefits to switching to paper ballots, and Ohio should consider switching to them,” state Rep. Tavia Galonski, D-Akron, said in testimony to the House State and Local Government Committee. “In a time where there are fears of voting machine hacking, election experts are advocating for off-line voting.” “For one, paper ballots are immune to computer hacking, there is no need for backup ballots to perform audits, and they are much cheaper than computer ballots,” Galonski said. According to Ballotpedia.org, 18 states use paper ballots. Other states used a combination of voting methods, including DRE machines with and without a paper trail. Democrats, in particular, have made election security a priority in the wake of the 2016 election. In an unrelated move, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, joined 37 senators to introduce the Election Security Act, which proponents say aims to combat foreign interference and improve election security. It would,…

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