Lawsuit Update - CVR's

NO Transparency in Corrupt South Dakota

As many of you know, citizens of the State of South Dakota have been after the audit trail to the elections for a long time now. These records are called cast vote records (CVR’s) machine audit logs, and tabulator tapes.

If you don’t know what these records are, you’re not alone. Your election officials don’t know what they are either.

South Dakota uses ES&S tabulators to count your votes. Tabulators are like office copy machines; they scan your ballot and convert the marked ovals into a digital record of the votes. These digital vote records are CVR’s. This digital data can be exported into spreadsheet format for analysis and auditing. The second part of a CVR is the ballot image. (picture of the ballot) The image of the ballot is saved digitally and also used for auditing. In instances of real audits of the 2020 election, analysis of these records has proven machine driven fraud.

An audit log is a recording by the tabulator that documents everything that happens on that machine. (because they are actually computers) It records when it was turned on, who logged in, when it was programmed, how many ballots were scanned in a batch, what IP addresses contacted the machine, when updates are downloaded, etc, etc. Theoretically, the ballots scanned per batch should add up to your precinct total, which adds up to your county total. Seems like something an auditor might want to use for an audit. It is also valuable to review for other computers or internet connections to that machine. (This is that top secret information they never want you to see.) See previous Substack about this HERE.

When we began requesting the CVR’s, not one single auditor knew what they were. A couple of them produced the audit log in person, but when it came time to copy the audit log and send it to us, the response was this:

Requests for the CVR’s produced this:

We’ve gone round and round on this. The Freedom Caucus hosted the CVR hearing in Pierre, SD on September 2, 2022, where all the election officials repeatedly said CVR’s don’t exist. Short video HERE. Full video of hearing HERE. The result of that hearing was: YES, CVR’s DO EXIST.

Then the Freedom Caucus called on Governor Noem to release the CVR’s. HERE

We filed a lawsuit as individuals that got dismissed b/c of procedural issues - not the merits of the case. (this is a story for another time)

Monae Johnson’s task force that met with ES&S executives at ES&S Headquarters produced a transcript that proves YES, CVR’s EXIST.

Well, here we are two years later and still have NO TRANSPARENCY in our elections in South Dakota. Our prior article with more info “Denials and Appeals” can be found HERE.

South Dakota Canvassing Group refiled all public records requests and they were again denied by the counties b/c of the hearing examiners original errant decision. (No due diligence, no hearing, no considering any evidence.) SDCG appealed this to the Office of Hearing Examiners again with 600 pages of new evidence and requested a hearing. The OHE just denied this appeal as well. No considering the evidence - it appears she just wanted it off her desk and out the door. Catherine Williamson, OHE is also an unelected bureaucrat exercising power not given to her by the people, which is negatively affecting all elections in the State of South Dakota based on false information and lies.

The above is from our response.

The decision made by Catherine Williamson is based on false information, machine vendor propaganda, incorrect application of the law, ignorance and malfeasance. The entire state is blocking your access to the audit trail based on this errant decision.

Are you ok with no access to the elections audit trail and proof of the “gold standard” here in South Dakota? Do you trust electronic machine tabulators with no proof of the vote totals? How long will we continue to accept unverifiable secret election results with no real audit? Will you let your county continue to violate your civil rights in 2024?

Do you have a bank account, credit card, or investment account? Do you receive a monthly or quarterly statement? Typically statements list all the transactions for the month including all deposits, credits, withdrawals, checks, debit card purchases, etc. line by line to arrive at your month end balance. Would you accept receiving a bank statement that looked like this?

How long would you do business with a bank that was not transparent with how they account for your funds? YOUR MONEY?

WHY in the world would we blindly trust a company with a long history of corruption that will not produce a transparent audit trail of YOUR VOTES? Why in the world do we allow our officials to gaslight us with nonsense and continue to deny access to public records while still claiming South Dakota has the gold standard of elections?

We think this is a ridiculous way to run public elections and will never restore public trust in the system. Absolutely no other industry in the modern business world is run so recklessly, with no real audit or oversight, and with blatant disregard for the customer. (VOTER)

If you look into the hyperlinked documents above and prior articles written, you KNOW that these records are intended for the public and have been required for auditing and transparency since 2005.

We posted several of our recent records for you to read, since we enjoy transparency - unlike our lying county officials and vote stealing machine vendors. https://www.sdcanvassing.com/letters-articles-and-press-releases [ see the legal documents section ]

Is your county still lying to you like they are to us? When is Monae Johnson going to fulfill those campaign promises?

We are doing everything we can to change this situation, and we promise we will never give up. But we can’t do it by ourselves. We need all hands on deck. 2024 is coming soon.

The real question is:

What are YOU going to DO about it?