Local Government TV

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Express Vote XL Vendor to Explain What Went Wrong in Nov Election

Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure, along with representatives for the Express Vote XL voting system, have scheduled a news conference at 1 pm today to discuss arising significant issues during the rollout of this $2.9 million hybrid touch screen and paper ballot system. Some voters complained they had difficulties making choices in the retention race. More importantly, at the end of the night, when the polls closed, most of the printouts showed that Democratic judicial candidate Abe Kassis had zero votes. A scan of the paper ballots, conducted election night and into the early morning hours, showed that Kassis had actually won.

The Express Vote XL voting system is a product of Electronic Systems & Software (ES&S), a wholly owned subsidiary of The McCarthy Group. It is the largest manufacturer of voting systems in the United States, including paper ballot systems like the one used in Lehigh County. ES&S Senior VP Adam Carbullido will be at the news conference, and both he and McClure will report their findings to County Council later that day.

How Did Northampton County Get The Express Vote XL?

You can blame failed Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein, along with Governor Tom Wolf. In 2016, she filed a bizarre lawsuit demanding a recount and attacking the various systems used to count votes throughout the state. Judge Paul S. Diamond gutted most of the suit, noting that Stein had presented "no authority recognizing a right to have one’s vote verified through any procedure," let alone paper ballots. He also said Stein's fear of vote tampering in “borders on the irrational.”

Though her lawsuit was on life support, Governor Tom Wolf nevertheless settled. He commanded all 67 counties, in late 2018 unfunded mandate, to acquire voting systems that include voter-verifiable paper ballots. What's more, they had to be in place in time for the 2020 presidential election. No consideration was given to the logistics of such a demand or the financial burden it imposed on counties.

The Express Vote XL was the choice of the vast majority of about 30 election judges who viewed four different systems in Lehigh County. It was the choice of Northampton County's Election Commission, who recommended it to Northampton County Council by a 3-2 vote on March 6, following a contentious meeting pitting election judges against paper ballot purists.

Arguing in favor of The Express Vote XL was GOP Chair Lee Snover. "We're not a third world country," she assserted. "We have technology for a reason. I don't want anyone determining the intent of my vote except for me and the machine."

Before accepting this recommendation, Northampton County Council waited to see how the system performed in Delaware's primary. Council finally approved the purchase on May 16 after the system received a glowing recommendation from Delaware election officials.

Numerous election judges and poll workers spoke in support of the new system. They argued it would be familiar to voters and present none of the privacy concerns or multiple lines that would accompany paper ballots.

In addition to election judges, Elections Commissioner Maude Hornick said she supported ExpressVote XL because she wants no election official to decide how she intended to vote.

Trudy Fatzinger, Secretary of Pennsylvania Council for the Blind, reported that ExpressVote XL is handicapped-friendly. This was a selling point to Executive Lamont McClure, who observed that 25% of Pennsylvania's registered voters have some form of disability.

The sole dissenter was lameduck Robert Werner, who argued illogically that because an old touchscreen voting machine could be reversed engineered, it necessarily follows that the Express Vote XL would be vulnerable, too. This is what is known in logic class as a fallacy.

Why Did It Take So Long To Find Out What Went Wrong?

Immediately after the election, a court order impounded the voting system in anticipation of a possible challenge. So ES&S was unable to look at the system until November 26, the last day on which a challenge could be filed. The company was legally unable to look at the machines until late November.

Questions to Be Answered at News Conference

1) What did voters have issues using the touchscreen, and how is this being resolved?

2) Why did the printed returns contain incorrect vote totals, and how is this being resolved?

3) Why were these glaring errors missed in the "logic and accuracy" testing done on each machine prior to an election, and what steps are being taken to ensure that these kinds of mistakes are caught before an election?

4) What is the County doing to ensure the Presidential election runs as smoothly as is possible?

26 comments:

  1. so why the dog and pony show before they go to county council? I thought that guy said he would bring tech experts with him? Will county council just roll over for the marketing guy or will they prove they represent the people?

    ReplyDelete
  2. NORTHAMPTON COUNTY is part of the deep state look at the results

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like a prepackaged setup? Why a press conference if they will meeting the public later that afternoon? Limit the questions? MSNBC covered this with county people. Sound fishy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "so why the dog and pony show before they go to county council"

    "Why a press conference if they will meeting the public later that afternoon?


    It's called transparency. McClure was elected by the people, and obviously feels he has a duty to the public and not just Council. He promised he would report to the public just as soon as he knew what happened and what the fix is.

    The MSNBC interview included people like Werner and paper ballot purists, who did everything they coud to undermine public confidence in a $2.9 million system. Scrapping it would be extremely foolish. Despite the issues, I believe it is the best system out there so long as the problems have been fixed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Keep tryin to defend voter unfriendly machines

    ReplyDelete
  6. Agree with you, Bernie, but with caveats. I found the new voting machines to be an improvement, yes. But, NOT a safeguard against election fraud. The process can be breached OUTSIDE the actions of the individual user. Corruption is still possible after the individual is finished using the new machine. My fear is in the counting and recording of results, then in what appears to be too light a process to verify accuracy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bits and pieces are starting to leak out about how these machines came to Northampton County and it has a fowl odor about it. It starts with Charlie Dertinger and how he forced the voting machines on the election commission. Talk has it that the administration rigged the system and Charlie was behind it. Charlie has to fess up and then we may restore some trust in this administration.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 5) What is being done to address the small print/glared glass/difficult to decipher paper ballot that's supposed to be confirmed before casting one's vote?

    That thing was a nasty eye chart.

    ReplyDelete
  9. No faith in this dog and pony show. Of course the vender will say it is all good. Big problems. No confidence in this provider. Big doesn't always mean good. If Stein was such a nut case why did Wolf follow thru? And it seems like the poll volunteers had different interpretations of how to address the emergent problems during voting. Will this happen again? Bah, the fish rots from the head down!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bernie..Why are you defending a machine that has not been fixed yet

    ReplyDelete
  11. I deleted a number of comments, most from criminal defendant Tricia Mezzacappa, braying about Trump. This has nothing to do with him.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "Bernie..Why are you defending a machine that has not been fixed yet"

    Because I've seen the others, and have confidence the problem is being fixed bc this is the biggest voting system vendor in the country and its reputation is on the line.

    ReplyDelete
  13. So council should just shut up and listen. Then say thank you to McClure and the company man. No questions or comments allowed. Why are you so defensive? I guess this is between the executive and the company, so why even bother to go to council? A show?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Voting requires so much faith that government itself should be classified as a bona fied religion. These companies and corporations are a tangled web of virgin births.

    Who is "The McCarthy Group"?

    A subsidiary of the McCarthy Capital Corporation? A hedge fund?

    A hedge fund with international investments counts our votes? Power to people!

    No reason at all to believe this machine is anything but fixed and at the ready.

    ReplyDelete
  15. ".... bc this is the biggest voting system vendor in the country and its reputation is on the line."

    "To big to fail" Here we go again.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Will Lamont Lines go away? Or are they part of the NorCo election day fabric at this point?

    ReplyDelete
  17. This is ridiculous. Some are bitching about privacy especially if all paper ballots were hand counted as some would support. Others against any kind of machine count whatsoever. Some bellyaching they want a receipt. What would that prove? I could make a receipt say anything. Bitch, Bitch, Bitch. Never seen such paranoia.

    I have a hellva lot more faith in these machines then most of the knuckleheads voting. Imagine if you will the ballot never listed the party they belong to. 3/4 of the voters wouldn't know what the hell to do.

    For these folks worrying about the trustworthiness of those who make them. I'd worry 100 times more about who is making your smartphones and appliances spying on you. Those are the ones you should worry about. Not some damn voting machine.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Big problem is the system cannot ever be fully trusted again

    ReplyDelete
  19. LVCI "paranoid" ?

    Walter Lippman wrote, The Phantom Public in 1925
    Edward Bernays wrote, Propaganda in 1928

    The Century of Self, a 2002 documentary may be of interest to you, and get you up to date, you seem a little late to the party.

    You can put your faith in these machines they work precisely how they're intended, as does the public schools, and the mass media.

    ReplyDelete
  20. December 12, 2019 at 4:19 PM Anonymous said..may be of interest to you, and get you up to date, you seem a little late to the party.
    Only if I get a tinfoil hat with them so I go the "party".

    ReplyDelete
  21. OK, so I am a crazy old lady, I admit it, but the fact is, when we lived in the North Carolina mountains, in the 1970's, we had, literally, paper ballots. No big fuss. You walked in, registered, got your ballot, picked up a pencil, went over to a school desk, checked off your choices on the ballot, folded the ballot, put the ballot into the slot in the big wooden box, and went outside to socialize or walk home, or whatever. Never any fuss or upheaval, they could recount them if they wanted to. Or not. It was so easy.

    Why is everything so blessed hard these days...can't vote without a lot of expense and hullabaloo, can't even make a simple phone call anymore. Press this, press that, it takes ten minutes to get to another robot, who wants you to press more buttons. Can't even call CVS for a refill, without having your time wasted by an idiot robot wanting to chat with you . Can't even get an honest paper statement from Bank of America, they trick deaf old men who come into the bank because they can't deal with the phone nonsense, into "going paperless," thereby utterly screwing up our finances, at our expense, not theirs. ETC.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Lol, 7:03 you made me laugh on a sad day. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  23. LVCI "Only if I get a tinfoil hat with them so I go the "party"."

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2afuTvUzBQ -Plato's cave

    As in John Carpenter's "They Live" you need Sunglasses, not a tinfoil hat.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVAcRH9b44w -The great Roddy Piper.

    ReplyDelete

You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.