Article Image Voters Sue State to Prevent Planned Destruction of Election Records Hearing Mon 12.11.17 @ 9AM

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Voters Sue State to Prevent Planned Destruction of Election Records Hearing Mon 12.11.17 @ 9AM

Written by John Brakey Subject: Voting and Elections

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Update: We have a court hearing at 9AM Monday Dec 11 in front of Hon Judge Roman Shaul. 4th floor room 4A

Voters Sue State to Prevent Planned Destruction of Election Records

Montgomery, AL, December 8, 2017 – A Republican, a Democrat, an Independent and a minister yesterday asked a Montgomery circuit court judge to order protection of election materials from next week's special Senate election. The voters say these materials are essential for verifying the accuracy of the election results and that the State plans to destroy them.

At issue are the "ballot images" created by the digital scanners paper ballots are fed into. Eighty five percent of vote-counting machines in the state count votes by reading the ballot images.

"The Secretary of State's office is legally required to set procedures to assure all election materials for 22 months after a federal election," explains election transparency expert John Roberts Brakey. "Even the envelopes from absentee ballots have to be kept. Destroying the ballot images is illegal. We're only asking the Secretary of State to follow the law."

"We need to make sure we can check on the results of the election if there's any question," said plaintiff Victoria Tuggle of Cullman County. "The confusing ballot design for the special election makes it extra important that human eyes can verify that the machines are counting the votes correctly," she said. "The public should be able to look at those images and make sure the machines count every ballot where voter intent is clear." She explained that the ballot images do not contain any identifying information about the voter, so they can be examined without violating the voters' right to a secret ballot.

Another plaintiff, Pamela Jean Frost Miles from Madison County, added, "We're fortunate most of the voting machines in Alabama create these ballot images. Not every state has them, and they really can make our elections more transparent. This isn't a partisan issue. It's about fair elections, period."

In a similar legal action in Arizona earlier this year, the judge ruled that ballot images are a public record and must be preserved as outlined by law.

The DS200 and DS850 machines in use in 85% of Alabama include options for saving all ballot images, saving only images for write-in votes, and saving no images. The default setting saves all images. Even when "None" is selected, the scanners still create ballot images, but will delete those images after the votes on them are counted by the machine.

"I have been informed by election officials in three of the state's largest counties that they intend to save only the images of the write-in ballots," said Brakey. "This means an election official will intentionally change the setting to destroy ballot images. We can't let that continue to happen."

The voters filing the case are asking the judge to order all Alabama counties to select the setting on the DS200 and DS850 scanners that will save all ballot images. This can easily be done in time for next week's special election.

Contacts:

Priscilla Black Duncan. LLC         Chris Sautter                       John Roberts Brakey

472 S. Lawrence, Suite 204          Attorney for Plaintiffs            Executive Director of AUDIT-AZ

Montgomery, AL 36104                (202) 285-7560                     (520)339 2696

(334) 264-9679                            sauttercom@aol.com            JohnBrakey@gmail.com

helzphar@mindspring.com

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Update: We have a court hearing at 9AM Monday Dec 11 in front of Judge Roman Shaul.
Please share these links, Yes Democracy does depend on what we do!! :
1, Our Press Release 12.08.17: https://tinyurl.com/y8334r8z
2, The TRO: https://tinyurl.com/ya3se646
3, How simple it is to solve the DS200 /850 problem: https://tinyurl.com/yd63pghn

4. TRO Exhibits for 9AM hearing 12.11.17:  https://tinyurl.com/y7eu33th

5. Court Notice of Hearing on December 11 at 9am:  https://tinyurl.com/y96tmw9s  

HERE ARE SOME MORE LINKS:

1. For Immediate Release_Voters Sue State to Prevent Planned Destruction of Election Records

2 Filing of Alabama TRO on protecting Digital Ballot Images.pdf

3. Exhibts about how to correct the problem with ES&S DS200 and DS850 Images Save all buttons

4. TRO Exhibits for 9AM hearing 12.11.17.pdf

5. Court Notice of Hearing on December 11 at 9am..pdf

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Dear Marisela, Tim, Lori, Douglass, Peggy, Mimi, Debbie, Arlene,  Rocky, Brad, Bev, Ted, Bennie, Brett, Clare, Mickey, Ernest, Frank and Bill.

A good day in the work we all do to DE-corrupt our democracy. 

Google  {  Alabama Ballot Images  }  to find out more what we doing.  I will be in Alabama until the 14th, working this important election with  Election attorney Chris Sautter!

THE TRO was filed and is attached with press release

John


We 3 know that Publicly Verified Elections are Key to De-Corrupting Our Democracy!!

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The ES&S DS instructional guide offers the operator 3 options, as illustrated below. Please note that the recommended setting is "*All Processed Images."

 Excerpt from ES&S manual:   An operator who selects "None" is willfully choosing to destroy public records. This part of election set-up is generally performed by the person who programs the election.

In previous elections, Alabama election officials or workers under their supervision selected an option which destroyed the ballot images.  When the ES&S DS200 was introduced approximately seven years ago, its ability to create "digital ballot images for auditing and adjudication" was promoted as a feature of this new system. 

When you carefully look at all the evidence you'll conclude that the digital ballot images must be preserved as a matter of both federal and state law. 


My newest Grandchild 2-27-17- Andra John Brakey 
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I call him AJ and he's my little clone
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