NFFV Action Request

Upcoming Government, Military,

and Veterans Affairs

Committee Hearing

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

1:30 PM, Room 1525

Support

LB808 - Provide for the Counting and Recounting of

Ballots by Hand Count

Why is LB808 Needed?

Nebraska's elections cannot be trusted unless they can be verified. That power belongs to Nebraska's citizens, not to officials who have taken control of the entire system.

Local control and verification - using the ballots actually cast - is critical to determine who actually won a contested election. For Nebraska voters, that is a problem because the state cannot produce a record of our voter registration database as it existed - on, right before, right after, or anywhere close to Election Day. That means that the legal requirement to preserve all election records for a minimum of 22 months is not possible. Without those records, a public audit cannot be verified. The only trustworthy option is to recount the original ballots - by hand.

Things we don't know but should!

Are Nebraska elections secure, yes, no, maybe? Many say Nebraska elections are secure and there is no need for change. The bases for these claims ultimately comes down to "we've never found fraud or fault with our election system". This gives comfort to many, but should it? While true; wide spread election fraud has never been found. This article even highlights what "checks" were done. What did these checks actually tells us? They tell us the machines were able to read the ballots with an error rate of 0.023% and the number of ballots submitted match closely to the number of ballots counted. That's good but it's not the whole story.

Here's what we still don't know.

• Not one of the 93 counties in Nebraska was able to produce an accurate record of cast votes in the last election.  
• The vote tally, when being sent and received, is not verified every time there is a transfer of data over the network.
• Secure storage sounds good. However, it is actually used to prevent the public from disclosure of certain election records. Secure storage must be maintained for a period, and we can only open it under court order, or a couple other things that are not publicly accessible.
• Event logs for electronic voting equipment have not been reviewed and are not publicly available. Therefore, maintenance of chain of custody pertaining to electronic election records is not verifiable.
• A record of the connection setting for all applications and components transferring data to external networks is not publicly available to verify chain of custody.
• We do not know with absolute certainty whether or not these connection settings allow for two way data transfers.
• If any one of these networked devices are compromised, the election record chain of custody is compromised.
• The voting system purchased by the Nebraska Secretary of State in January 2020 was not legally certified by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) as required by law in 42 U.S.C. §15371(b).

How to be heard? 

Take action, your voice is powerful make it heard. LB808 committee hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 22, 2023.

How to be heard? Here are three ways:

• Most Effective: Testify in person. Going to the Committee hearing and sharing YOUR story with committee member Senators is very impactful. For first time in person testifier here are some helpful hints. 
• Very Effective: Submit written testimony. If you can't be there in person then submit written testimony. Not sure how to do that, click here. Note; written testimony needs to be submitted by noon the business day before the committee hearing.
• Effective: Email your position letter to the Committee Senators and CC your own Senator. For a listing of the Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee Senators click here. Note; emails need to be sent by noon the business day before the committee hearing. It's not likely these emails will be included in official hearing minutes though there is a better chance Committee Senators will see your comments. You can request they be added to meeting minutes in your email to Committee Senators.

Not sure what to say?

Listed below are thought starters. Build your story around one or two of them. Quantity is not as important as a short heart felt personal story.

Here are three strong arguments to support this legislation:



• Candidates should be able to request recounts be done by hand. Currently they are done in the original manor of counting. This became an issue in our last elections, see here.

• Publicly counted hand ballots is the most secure way to run an election. When election integrity is in question, the ability to count ballots by hand should be available.

• Don't wait for a wide spread problem, take the proactive approach of hand counting ballots so Nebraska's can feel confident in their voting processes.