The November elections have come and gone and as expected, they have left in their wake enough political punditry themes to go around. One theme that seems to tower above the rest however, is this quiet acknowledgement by both Democrats and Republicans that there are serious problems with our electronic voting infrastructure that need immediate attention.





This bipartisan reckoning is largely attributed to the bombshell news out of Texas that the eSlate voting machines used in Harris County and many other Texas metroplexes were somehow switching votes meant for Democrat Beto O’Rourke to GOP’s Ted Cruz on straight Democratic party votes.

As is if this was not enough, a stunning video later surfaced on Twitter showing an electronic voting machine in Indiana doing exactly what had been reported in Texas—switching Democratic party votes to GOP.

Needless to say this bombshell video about Indiana vote-switching coupled with the previous news from Texas led to serious concerns from the voting public that electronic machines may have been rigged. This is especially due to the fact that both in Texas and Indiana, it was the Dem votes that were switching to GOP and not the other way around

Somehow in spite of all these concerns from voters regarding the vote-switching issue, the Texas media appears to have shockingly accepted without any reservations this narrative contained in a Texas Secretary of State’s Advisory that said because there were “fewer than 20 reported cases” of vote-switching, this was a non-issue and that anybody questioning the magnitude and scope of the vote-switching was spreading “misinformation”. The Director of Communications for the Texas Secretary of State, Sam Taylor has repeated this narrative in interviews with various sections of the Texas Media essentially arguing that if vote-switching was a big problem, there would be much more reported cases.

This narrative by the Texas Secretary of State that vote-switching is not an issue because there were “fewer than 20 reported cases” is by all objective standards, a highly unsatisfactory answer because it does not address the elephant in the room question as to how many people using eSlate machines voted straight Democratic Party, but for whatever reason did not catch/overlooked the switch and ended up voting for Ted Cruz by mistake?

In Harris County for example where eSlates were used, Beto O’Rourke beat Ted Cruz 58 to 41.3% securing 698,580 votes to Cruz’s 498,175. This represents a total of 1,196,755 votes cast in the U.S. Senate race in Harris County. The question the media should be asking the Texas Secretary of State is how many of these 1,196,755 voters voted straight Democratic party but somehow are reflected as having voted for Ted Cruz? In other words is there a way to go back and verify that people who voted straight Democratic party did not vote for Cruz by mistake? If the answer to that is yes, then the process should be repeated in all counties that used eSlates. Then and only then can the Secretary of State say definitively that vote-switching was not an issue.

If on the other hand there is no way to go back and verify that straight Democratic party voters did not mistakenly vote for Cruz, which is the most likely scenario, then with all due respect to the Texas Secretary of State, there is simply no way he can credibly conclude that vote-switching was not an issue in the U.S. Senate race and Texans have every right to suspect otherwise without being accused of spreading “misinformation”.

Bottom line, the Texas media needs to confront the Texas Secretary of State with the million dollar question; “How many people using eSlate machines voted straight Democratic party but somehow are reflected as having voted for Ted Cruz?” Our good friend Ariella Baker-Archer perfectly summed it, saying two years from now we don’t want to look back and say “we should have checked.”

Definilty worth the time to look. If nothing comes of it, no harm no foul, but there should be no question about it. In two years no one wants to look back and say “we should have checked.” — Ariella Baker-Archer (@Jamestown_1607) November 10, 2018

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