More Serious Concerns with WA State Elections, including King County, in 2024 it Just Continues...
Educate. Advocate. Mitigate. Activate!
August 19, 2024, the night before the WA State Primary Election Certification, four King County election workers were witnessed on live stream web cameras opening ballot boxes and touching ballots about 10:30 PM.
What were election workers doing at this late hour? And why weren't there any election observers present or observers properly notified as required by RCW 29A.40.100 and WAC 434-261-020:
See screenshot below, note 17 white cardboard ballot batch boxes on metal cart (typically a batch contains about 250 ballots).
Then, yesterday, August 20, 2024, it was reported by a Republican Party Election Observer that a scheduled 1 PM King County Canvassing Board was postponed to 3 PM, then at about 3:45 PM, with only a few counties left to report their final totals, King County Elections reported their final totals for the WA STATE LANDS COMMISSIONER RACE.
The final results have Jamie Herrera Beutler and Dave Upthegrove making the top two November General Election, pending a mandatory hand re-count in all 39 counties for this incredibly close and very important statewide race. The race is the closest statewide race in the history of Washington’s primary, exceeding the 1960 Superintendent of Public Instruction primary where A. T. Van Devanter and Harold L. Anderson were separated by 252 votes!
The statewide recount, per RCW 29A.64.021, will be the first one since the controversial 2004 WA State Rossi / Gregoire Governor Race.
OF NOTE: There were inconsistencies in Matchback reports for King County. There were 215 ballots from Monday to Tuesday that were “cured” in King County, and there were 146 votes not accounted for. King only received an extra 29 ballots Aug 19. Aug 20, no extra ballots were received and looking at all the ballot return statistics King County was supposed to ONLY COUNT 320 ballots yesterday before certification, they counted 681 ballots (Dave received 203 votes and Sue received 64 votes).
OF INTEREST: According to the King County Elections Canvassing Report, yesterday Dave Upthegrove received 56% of the total cured ballots, a whopping (and statistically unlikely) 21% above his 35% vote primary election vote total…
MORE KING COUNTY PROBLEMS: Chief of Staff for the King County Council is Stephanie Cirkovich. Dave Upthegrove is Chair of the King County Council, and Cirkovich works for and reports to Upthegrove. Cirkovich is also on the King County Canvassing board! Gee, what could go wrong???
It was also discovered that King County Elections has contracted with a leftist NGO called Democracy Live. Democracy Live operates the OmniBallot voting system, which is facilitating an online/mobile phone ballot curing (aka re-hab) program for the WA State Primary Election.
This online voting system (apparently only being used in King County) is also being used for the King County Conservation District elections. This system is ripe for manipulation, as any nefarious person on the inside could possibly cook the books to achieve the desired end result with their Selected candidates.
When a voter forgets to sign the voter’s envelope that enclosed their ballot, or when a voter’s signature on the envelope does not match what is on record, “Ballot Curing” is necessary. This is the process to inform a voter to Fix / Cure their signature, so their vote is counted, per WAC 434-261-053.
If a King County voter is on the list of challenged ballots (missing or mismatched signature), they can use the OmniBallot website to cure their challenged ballot. Only if you have a challenged ballot can you go through the entire process, as you need to agree to an oath and provide information.
When the King County voter is notified of this issue and sent a text message link via a cell phone to cure their ballot, the voter is directed to the OmniBallot webpage (NOT King County Elections).
Founded in 2007, Democracy Live specializes in online voting technology for deployed service members, overseas voters and voters with disabilities. Its flagship product is OmniBallot, which allows voters to download a blank ballot and mark it manually, mark a ballot online and download the completed ballot as a PDF, or mark a ballot online and return it via an online portal.
In 2021, a pair of prominent election security researchers concluded in a study that the company’s flagship product is riddled with flaws. “We conclude that using OmniBallot for electronic ballot return represents a severe risk to election security and could allow attackers to alter election results without detection,” Michael Specter of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and J. Alex Halderman of the University of Michigan wrote in a study published as part of the Usenix computer security conference in August of 2021.
Democracy Live's OmniBallot platform is a web-based system for blank ballot delivery, ballot marking, and online voting. A few other states, including Delaware, West Virginia, and New Jersey, allow certain voters to cast votes online using OmniBallot. Despite the well established risks of Internet voting, it is believed the system has not undergone a public, independent security review.
It has been reported that OmniBallot uses a simplistic approach to Internet Voting that is vulnerable to vote manipulation by malware on the voter's device and by insiders or other attackers who can compromise Democracy Live, Amazon, Google, or Cloudflare.
In addition, Democracy Live receives sensitive personally identifiable information including the voter's identity, ballot selections, and in some cases even a browser fingerprint—that could be used to target political ads or disinformation campaigns.
Even when OmniBallot is used to mark ballots that will be printed and returned in the mail, the software sends the voter's identity and ballot choices to Democracy Live, an unnecessary risk that jeopardizes the secret ballot.
More Info see links: New remote voting risks and solutions identified
Is Your Wobbly, Illegible Touchscreen Signature Still You?
New remote voting risks and solutions identified
ADDITIONALLY IN WHATCOM COUNTY, FOR THE COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC LANDS ELECTION dozens of Republican volunteer cure forms were not accepted because (according to county election officials) they were too late, problem being is that there are multiple witnesses and time stamps evidence saying otherwise.
SOME IMPORTANT TAKE-A-WAYS:
WA State DSHS is now reportedly giving phones to illegal immigrants, how easy would it be for these people to vote? Or how easy would it be for someone to vote / cure ballots for them? This needs to be tracked.
Election Observers need to DOCUMENT EVERYTHING - IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING! No matter how insignificant you think it is, and it is also very important to set up data collection systems to aggregate and organize everything everyone has collected.
VERIFY before CERTIFY!
Democrats are advocating for more of this digital online 'voting' but what they don't realize is the system that we currently have doesn't have any reliable way for the citizens to verify its operation in the first place. Are we going to change to yet another system that is even more difficult to verify? Let’s hope not as online voting a terrible idea!
Counties are overloaded with absentee/mail-in ballots. The simple solution is to stop mail-in voting (except for disabled, absentee or UOCAVA), rather than creating new vulnerabilities and trying to deal with them.
Transparency and variability by the citizens are the most important principles of our election system. Accuracy is only determined by variability. Convenience should be the LAST priority.
Since “Voting systems are critical national infrastructure” - Then there should be no argument for rigorous election audits, right?
Bill Bruch
Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Chairman, WSRP Executive Board Member, 4-Term Skagit County GOP Chairman, Citizen Journalist, Blogger, Business Owner, “2021 Citizen Activist of the Year” award by the Olympic Conference, 2020 WA State House Representative Candidate, Former Council Member, and WA State 2016 and 2024 RNC National Convention Delegate.
More Related Source Docs, Links and Articles:
FAQ: RCW 29A.64.021 / WAC Chapter 434-264 Recounts
King County Elections Redacted… - Including Podcast
VIDEO: King County Elections Department Caught Making Secret Server Swap in Middle of Election
Video: King County Elections - What the Heck are they doing after hours when nobody is looking? Why?
Video: King County Elections Server Switch - 2023 Primary
VIDEO: King County Elections Department Caught Making Secret Server Swap in Middle of Election
King County Elections Redacted…(Part 2) - WSRP Press Release for Potential Litigation
VIDEO: King County Citizens Election Oversight Committee Meeting - 9.20.23
King County Republican Party Demands Accountability and Transparency in Election Process
King County Republican Party Calls for Investigation into King County Elections
Why King County Elections Policies Foster Corruption and Fraud!
King County - Election Fraud Epicenter in WA
Washington State Sham and Scam Election “Audits” That Are Not Audits
25 Counties in WA Notified of Potential Litigation for Illegal Deletion of Elections Records
More excellent reporting, Bill! I share your Substack with all my election observers. It's important that they hear not only from me how important it is to document everything.