Election inspection
To the Editor.
Election integrity. We’ve heard it all. Over and over. Again and again. Election integrity is the bedrock of our democracy. We hear it from the right. We hear it from the left. We might be tired of hearing it, but that doesn’t change the fact that without free and fair election we will not have a country.
How do we ensure our elections are fair, transparent, secure and trusted? Well, that is a million-dollar question. And the answer is not a one-liner. There is no simple answer except to say we all better be looking and paying attention.
The more I learn about the ES&S ballot counting machines the more skeptical of them I become. The certification is out of national compliance. The logistics of coding in the ballots and testing is fraught with a land mine of possible errors. And who is responsible for the compliance of the machines? The county clerk? The county commissioners? The secretary of state? The legislature? All of above.
The legislature has allowed statutes to be written that are nearly impossible to comply with 100%. Without a change in the law we are held to use the ballot machines. Here is the catch. If ballots are printed to be used in the machines, they cannot be handled, inspected or hand counted. A recount must be done by putting the ballots through the same machine.
Last election, when a recount was done it was in violation of state statute, but what else could be done? We could not run them through the machine again. We would have gotten the same result that was obviously wrong.
There is reasonable doubt that our ballot machines are in federal compliance. This falls on the secretary of state since it is a failure to hold ES&S responsible to bring the machines into compliance. This creates a liability for the county clerks. Do they continue to use machines that are out of compliance and hope no one sues them? Do they continue to use them, because asking for hand counting is not clearly legal until the legislature changes the law?
Watch the legislature on this issue. There are bills that ask for a complete disposal of the machines and there are bills that will open up the choices for the commissioners. County commissioners have the say in whether to use machines or hand count. But election code in Wyoming appears to box them into one choice. That alone makes me suspicious. Why would Niobrara, Crook or Weston County be forced to use cumbersome, expensive machines if they didn’t want to? Why would the entire state be held hostage to vote counting machines that are from out of state?
I am working with a group to learn all we can about alternatives to the ES&S machines. We are offering a short training in hand counting at the end of January in an effort to learn about the feasibility of hand counting our elections. Our county commissioners have been asked by resolution of the Weston County Republican Party in 2024 to switch to hand counting. I believe we need to have more information before we ask the commissioners to switch.
The travesty we have experienced by using the machines, coupled with the cost, the liability to the clerk, and the lack of voter trust leads me to favor hand counting.
The good citizens of the county need to learn as much as they can about the entire election process. Be involved as a judge or poll watcher. Know the whole story, not just what your friends think.
At the risk of being melodramatic, our country is not the best it can be right now. Apathy has taken a toll. It is time to learn, be involved and take your civic duties serious.
— Susan Love