The Secretary of State’s Office is urging Vermonters not to worry about a continued delay in certifying the state’s recent primary election results, and that the matter is unrelated to the integrity of the results as tallied by town clerks.
“It is important to note that this process is separate and distinct from the official counting of ballots and the local certification of official results by the Town Clerks,” a press release from the office states. “The Secretary of State’s office wants to assure the public that these administrative delays do not impact the 100% confidence we have in the accuracy of the vote totals for all candidates as reported by the Town Clerks.”
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos
The matter has to do with technology an administrative technology issue. While canvassing was scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, the state’s contractor, software vendor Civix, is continuing to work out an issue with properly assigning votes for the new Chittenden County Senate district.
Dame says Copeland Hanzas, gerrymandering to blame
Vermont GOP Chair Paul Dame in a commentary Monday suggested that Democratic candidate for secretary of state Sarah Copeland Hanzas played a role in the mishap during 2022 redistricting, where she served as chair of the House Government Operations Committee.
“Never before has a Secretary of State candidate been responsible for an election problem before they even entered the general election, but this Democrat will,” Dame said. “In this case, Copeland Hanzas’s desire to create a partisan gerrymandered map has caused new confusion and now election delays.”
Dame adds: “By taking the unprecedented step of splitting towns into different State Senate districts to achieve partisan advantages for Progressives (at the expense of moderate Democrats) Copeland Hanzas has compromised a previously efficient and reliable system.”
The problems are centered around the redistricting of the Chittenden County region, which, Dame said, has one district cutting across town lines in three different municipalities. The situation has “created an unnecessary burden for the local town and city clerks related to separate ballots,” he added.
Copeland Hanzas is running against GOP candidate H. Brooke Paige for secretary of state.
Vermont’s current secretary of state, Jim Condos, told reporters Tuesday that the issue is expected to be resolved before the weekend.
Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.
Saying he has 100% confidence is the pitch of a con man. Nothing is perfect, and reasons for fraud are many. If he had said he has 99.97% confidence it would at least sound plausible.
All these excuses about machines are not believable either. Unless you audit all of them, how can you know?
I think it is obvious by now the purpose of these machines is election rigging. How did the world get elections done before? I’d like to see it done as Willem describes. No excuses.
Live Free or Diebold!
Lost.
All.
Integrity.
Not.
To be.
Believed.
Not to be believed at all
Just saw an new expose like 2000 Mules and by the people who found the evidence . Says they change the old info , or delete it so they can not get caught… Notice the guy who implemented this is “retiring”. No, No, Nothing to see here move along. Oops. there IS something to see…. look here!!
https://rumble.com/v1f8hvx-exclusive-live-from-the-pit-a-vital-strategy-session-presented-by-true-the-.html
This stinks to high heaven… and remember he is leaving.
Here’s a more recent link of the True the Vote live stream.
https://rumble.com/v1fv2mt-true-the-vote-the-pit-watch-party.html
France, Germany, etc., do not use any machines.
All ballots are hand counted.
No vote is counted that arrives after the polls close.
Ballots are date stamped
The results are known the next day.
Well now, would hand counting take this long?
Isn’t it typical that Condos never explains precisely what the problem is. In other words, he doesn’t know. So how can anyone expect him to get things fixed? Delay – Distract – Deceive.
Jay,
NO CONCERNS OVER ELECTION FRAUD IN GERMANY
https://www.dw.com/en/no-concerns-over-election-fraud-in-germany/a-17102003
The voting process in Germany is strictly regulated to rule out any possible election fraud. Even electronic voting machines, which could malfunction, have been banned by the country’s Constitutional Court.
“Germany’s election process is quite transparent,” said Klaus Pötzsch of the electoral committee responsible for the organization and running of any federal or EU election in Germany. The committee is trying to make sure that nothing goes wrong. “For instance you could look at the situation in the polling stations. In each station we have eight to nine volunteers helping out.”
Around 630,000 such volunteers will be at polling places for the federal elections on Sunday. Anyone 18 or older can volunteer, but local authorities might also recruit you to help – and you can only turn down their request if you have a very convincing reason.
Before polling stations open, the volunteers will check to ensure ballot boxes are indeed empty. During the election they’ll make sure that everybody has an ID with them and can show the documents every citizen receives by mail proving that they are eligible to vote.
Germany says no to computers, worried they’d make the system vulnerable to fraud
From Polling Station to Electoral Committee
The volunteers also take care that voters won’t be influenced. If, for instance, members of one of the political parties were to try to campaign inside the polling stations, they’d have to be stopped.
The volunteers themselves also have to be impartial on election day – which doesn’t mean they can’t be members of a party. In fact, an intentional mix of volunteers from different political parties is often preferred in order to guarantee the impartiality of the team as a whole.
At 6 p.m. sharp, the polling stations close and the votes are counted according to a rigid system. “The result then will be passed on from the polling station to the local election authorities who will in turn pass it on to the next level until all the results trickle in at the federal electoral committee.”
Problems With Postal Vote
This transparency is supposed to protect the election against fraud. Usually, it’s something that works fine, though Pötzsch said he cannot rule out that there couldn’t be small isolated instances where things don’t work the way they should.
“Transparency is Key,” explains Klaus Pötzsch
Manipulation of absentee ballots, which are growing in popularity among Germans, could be easier than election fraud at the ballot box. In cities, as many as 30 percent of voters prefer to cast the ballot by mail rather than heading down to the polling places in person.
A care-taker in an elderly home might be doing the voting for one of his patients, a husband or wife might tick the box for their spouse. In 2002, local elections in Dachau were rigged when more than 400 postal votes had been manipulated. The fraud only came to light because the 400 ballots had been filled out with the exact same ballpoint pen.
Voting Machines are Unconstitutional in Germany
Germany has in the past used voting machines, as is done in the United States and Brazil. But in 2009, the country’s highest court has banned computers from the voting process on the grounds that the process had to be public. The same goes for counting the votes: “Every single vote has to be read out loudly and noted in a public protocol. Transparency is key,” said Pötzsch.
“Public” here means that anyone can attend the counting process. And should there be doubts about the results from a certain polling station, it has to be possible to recount the votes. This was, according to the court’s ruling – not possible when voting machines were used.
German Identity Card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_identity_card
The German Identity Card (German: Personalausweis) is issued to German citizens by local registration offices in Germany and diplomatic missions abroad, while they are produced at the Bundesdruckerei in Berlin.
Obligation of Identification
According to the German law of obligation of identification, it is compulsory for everyone in Germany age 16 or older to possess either an identity card or a passport.
While police officers and some other government officials have a right to demand to see one of these documents, the law does not stipulate that one is obliged to submit the document at that very moment.
Acceptance of other official documents (like driving licenses) as proof of identity is not guaranteed, especially for old driving licenses with less security. Driving licenses issued before 2013 are not replaced in Germany, so the same document is kept.
German citizens travelling inside Europe (except Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine) or to Egypt, Georgia, Montserrat (max.14 days),[2] Turkey, and on organized tours to Tunisia can use their ID card, which is a machine-readable travel document, instead of a passport.[3]
Just like German passports, German identity cards are valid for ten years (six years if the holder is under 24 on the date of issue).
The ID card currently costs 37€ (€22.80 if the holder is under 24 on the date of issue).