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Good news! The New York State Board of Elections voted yesterday to REJECT certification of ES&S’s ExpressVote XL all-in-one barcode ballot marking device (BMD), a glitchy & hackable touchscreen that ES&S has hoped officials would stupidly buy in lieu of pen and paper. 1/ https://twitter.com/commoncauseny/status/1354840514613407745
I’m still trying to find out @NYSBOE’s reasoning, but I know one problem was that the ExpressVote XL runs on Windows 7 and can only mark ballots in English. If the XL were a person, it would be a MAGA. 2/
The XL has other problems. It runs the barcode “paper ballot” back under the printout AFTER the voter reviews it, which experts say means it could be maliciously programmed to eff with the barcode that is the only part of the “paper ballot” counted as your vote. 3/
Unfortunately, Philadelphia did choose the ES&S ExpressVote XL all-in-one ballot marking device (BMD), ignoring expert advice. I wrote about that unfortunate decision here in 2019. 4/ https://www.salon.com/2019/02/16/philly-ignores-cybersecurity-and-disability-access-in-voting-system-selection_partner/
Here, for @NYRBooks, I also discuss problems involving the ES&S ExpressVote XL in PA in 2019. ES&S lobbyists had secretly donated to the two decision makers who then chose this system in Philly in lieu of #HandMarkedPaperBallots (pen & paper). 5/ https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/12/17/how-new-voting-machines-could-hack-our-democracy/
6/ Screenshots from my piece in post 5.
7/ Here, I again wrote about problems involving the ExpressVote XL. https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/10/31/how-safe-is-the-us-election-from-hacking/
ES&S downplays problems w/ its systems. Thus, the only way to really know what occurred is with public records requests. @RGarella did one in 2019 & found that, “‘poll workers & technicians reported issues with the new [XL] machines at more than 40 % of polling locations,’ ... 8/
...yet the voting machine vendor ES&S said that ‘it was ‘simply inaccurate’ for anyone to imply there were widespread issues.’” 9/
As written, HR1 would allow jurisdictions to force all in person voters to use the ExpressVote XL or other glitchy touchscreens, as long as voters have the option to vote by mail. That isn’t good enough. 10/
At a minimum, HR1 must be amended to require that jurisdictions give voters the option to mark their ballots with a pen (rather than a touchscreen) AT THE POLLS (for jurisdictions w/ in person voting). We Please tell ur members of Congress. TY. #PensAtThePolls 11/
12/ #HandMarkedPaperBallots (exception for voters with disabilities)
13/ HR1 should also ban all-in-one BMDs like the ExpressVote XL and Dominion ICE, which run the ballots back under the printer head after voters inspect them. #ExpelTheXL #ICETheICE
14/ As a vendor, ES&S is arguably America’s most concerning. I wrote about ES&S’s history through the present here. https://link.medium.com/q5zQHyEPrdb
15/ Stacey Abrams’s group, Fair Fight Action, created this document detailing concerns with voting machine vendor ES&S, which had the Georgia contract before Georgia switched to Dominion. https://fairfight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Election-Systems-and-Software-ESS-Corruption-07162019.pdf
16/ When ES&S had the Georgia contract, 127,000 black votes vanished from its system. https://www.theroot.com/exclusive-thousands-of-black-votes-in-georgia-disappea-1832472558
17/ Black voters also vanished from machines serviced and maintained by ES&S in Shelby County, TN in 2015, as reported by Bloomberg. cc: @WandaHalbert https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-voting-technology/
18/ I interviewed @benniejsmith about the vanishing black votes in TN here; he made the discovery. https://twitter.com/bevmovement/status/1280575739084054528
19/ Full interview.
20/ Correction post 17: votes, not voters.
21/ Correction post 3: printer head, not printout
22/ Clarification Post 9. The 40% of polling places with ExpressVote XL problems in 2019 were in Philadelphia, not nationwide!
