@Applewood @libertybele @Cyber Liberty@mystery-ak Applewood, you said, "Well, I said elsewhere -- voting machines can be tampered with. In fact, I believe it happened a couple of years ago here, but no one really looked into the matter."
"Voting Machines Security", followed by "Paper Ballots Security"
Voting MachinesI was working in politics when the Florida 2000 mess happened. As a result of that, hanging chad ballots were outlawed and the federal govn. passed the Help America Vote Act. In this act, money was given to states to buy voting machines if they wanted them. That is the time most states went to voting machines. This federal law documented how states had to examine such machines and make choices.
The Texas Secretary of State and that office in other states, examined machines and approved a number of them counties could buy. The Texas Election Law (as in other states, too), made laws/rules to follow to make the machines secure.
You see, elections just don't "happen". There are laws that determine how elections are run, right down to machines and paper ballots.
The county commissioner's court examines machines and determine which type they will buy, (in this beginning of getting the first machines through the Help America Vote Act, the federal government paid for them.)
Once the machines are in the county courthouse, the machine company teaches the officials how these machines work. They are then sealed in a room that has two locks. One key goes to the Election Administrator and the other key goes to the Sheriff. The room will not open without the two keys. If the Sheriff is on the ballot, that key goes to the County Judge. The Sheriff and County Judge are elected in different years.
Now, an election is coming up. The county can have the Company who made the machines, prepare the software program for that election and put the program on all the machines. If the county has a programmer, that person may install the program on the machines. Remember, the room for all machines are locked with two locks, the room is never left open for anyone to get into that room. THEN,
The Republican County Chairman and the Democrat County Chairman, meet with the Election Administrator and every machines is checked for accuracy. Should any machine fail, that machine is removed to be "fixed" and returned to the others.
Early on election day, the Sheriff Deputies, put the machines in their truck/whatever, and deliver them to each polling place. Once in the polling place, the machines are plugged in and the Judge and Alternate Judge (one a Democrat; the other a Republican), check to make sure each machine is set at 0.
These machines are COUNTERS; that is all they do. They are not hooked to the internet. They have a disk inside that counts the ballots. Another check: In the "guts" of the machine there is another disk recording the count, a disk no one can take out except the Company who made it. A technician from that company can remove it. This is a safe duplicate to have in case something is wrong with the first disk.
At the end of the day, the Judge and Alternate Judge remove the disks and both of them stay together to take the disks to central counting, their vehicle followed by a Sheriff's Deputy until the disks are handed over to central counting.
During the last presidential election, there were two men who said they changed a voting machine. The internet went nuts - here was proof you can change a voting machine.
Remember all the machines are locked in a room with two locks? These two men did not say how they got a machine but you MUST have the machine or you can't change it. So, they actually had a machine and messed with it. Your grandchild could mess with a machine
if he/she had it. These machines are never left in a hallway or anywhere else for someone to mess with it. Remember, room-two locks.
PAPER BALLOTSPaper ballots are used for mail ballots and some counties use paper ballots all the way through the election. Some machines have a paper ballot that goes into the machine.
Let's say you are on my Early Voting Ballot Board. We are meeting for the first time to evaluate mail ballots. We are in a room and the door is locked. No one can come in the room unless the person knocks and I go to the door to determine if that person can come in. It is a county clerk delivering metal large boxes with mailing envelopes inside. I go to the boxes, go to one and look at the number on the wire lock. The clerk has a sheet with a wire lock number for each box. Yes, this box has a wire lock with a number and the same wire lock number is on the sheet. What does this tell me? It says from the time this box was locked, it has not been opened. This is why: You can only use a wire lock one time. To get it off, you have to break the wire and it cannot be put back together.
At the end of the day we leave and come back the next day to continue the work. Before leaving, the Judge must do this: Place all ballot material in the boxes from whence they came. Place a wire lock on every box. Write down on a form the wire lock number of each box. A clerk will come and place the boxes back in the secure room; the two locks are applied.
The next day, we start again, and I check each wire lock on each box to make sure it is the same lock number I wrote at the end of the previous day.
If you messed with my boxes and wire locks, as the Judge of the Board, I have the power of a District Judge and I would have you thrown in jail. DON'T MESS WITH MY BOXES.
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