By Robert J. Borer (a letter to the Editor)
We the people (Citizens) of Nebraska have a right as qualified voters “to exercise the elective franchise,” as set forth in Article I, Section 22, of our State Constitution. But what good is the elective franchise if we can’t have confidence in its integrity?
“The electoral system cannot inspire public confidence if no safeguards exist to deter or detect fraud or to confirm the identity of voters.”
Commission on Federal Election Reform, Report, Building Confidence in U.S. Elections § 2.5 (Sept.2005), App. 136-137 (Carter-Baker Report)
“…public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process has independent significance, because it encourages citizen participation in the democratic process.” “…the State…has an interest in protecting public confidence ‘in the integrity and legitimacy of representative government.’”
Crawford et al. v. Marion County Election Board et al., 128 S.Ct. 1610, 1620 (2008)
We the people have no confidence in our electoral process. Here’s why:
1) Our Governor and Secretary of State openly promote online/mail-in voter registration and mass mail-in and unmanned/unsecured drop-box voting:
“WHEREAS, all citizens can register to vote online or by mail; and WHEREAS, all registered voters were mailed an application to request an early ballot and drop boxes were purchased for each county for the convenience of voters who can either mail their ballots to their county election office or drop the ballots in the drop boxes.”
(Source: Executive Order 20-16.)
These provisions open the door wide to electioneering, ballot harvesting and ballot stuffing. Secretary Evnen acknowledged as much in a recent radio interview with Commander Jack Riggins on KLIN Drive Time Lincoln.
2) Our vote-counting is centralized in a private company (ES&S).
“Nebraska purchased voting and tabulation equipment as well as a new election management system (EMS). That system helped to centralize many significant functions under the Secretary of State, however, it is very dependent on information technology through websites and databases and transmissions with vendors and counties.”
https://sos.nebraska.gov/elections/nebraska-election-security
We have no confidence that our electoral process abides by the precept of “one citizen, one vote.”
Centralized power is power that is easily corrupted and abused. This is why our Founders established a system of government that separates its various powers (legislative, executive and judicial) into different branches and declares that these separated and just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, who stand as their equals. Our system is one of checks and balances, at every level. The checks and balances on our vote-counting (and voter registrations) are grossly inadequate.
3) This centralized vote-counting takes place behind a wall of secrecy and in the “black box” of ES&S machines/tabulators. Inside these machines are computers that are easily hackable.
“Computer-based methods [of vote-counting] are subject to ‘hacking,’…” “One might think, ‘our voting machines are never connected to the Internet, so hackers cannot get to them.’ But all voting machines need to be programmed for each new election: They need a ‘ballot-definition file’ with the contests and candidate names for each election, and lists of the contests different voters are eligible to vote in. This programming is typically done via removable media such as a USB thumb drive or a memory card. Vote-stealing malware can piggyback on removable media and infect voting machines—even machines with no network connection.
https://georgetownlawtechreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/4.2-p523-541-Appel-Stark.pdf
4) The Heritage Foundation gives Nebraska’s election integrity a big fat F. (Source: https://www.heritage.org/electionscorecard/pages/states/ne.html )
This is a condensed version of a much larger article. We have several more reasons, but space here does not permit.
Conclusion: We have no confidence that our electoral process abides by the precept of “one citizen, one vote.” We need change in our electoral process in Nebraska. We live in a digital age where it ought to be easy to verify voter eligibility and to watch a ballot/vote count, if one so chooses, and/or to verify the results of our elections. We can’t do that in Nebraska. We’re told to just trust them. That’s nonsense.
