Trump correctly says "We need paper." But he ignores the true culprit...

Dominion machines have paper trails. That's why there was a "hand audit" last month - the paper ballots were checked by hand.

I only watched the hand audit in person for a few hours but that's more than anyone I've seen yelling about this. https://t.co/WuBiY9UqNJ

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 2, 2020

Yes, it is a little weird to hear Donald Trump say something that I've been saying for sixteen years. It's also amusing to hear Trump cry "Paper!" so soon after he complained about "big, massive dumps." 

 

That said, we do need to go to paper. 

 

Dominion's system provides a hand-recountable paper trail. That's the truth which the Breitbarters, the Alex Jonesians and the Q qrazies never tell you. If Dominion's system were the commie/CIA conspiracy that the Trumpers say it is, the hand recount would have differed from the digital count. 

 

ES&S, the Republicans' preferred election machine provider, is -- in my view -- far more sinister.

 

The Democrats tried to pass the SAFE Act, which would have gone a long ways toward cleaning up our election systems. That act would have mandated a paper trail from all vendors. 

 

The Republicans blocked this legislation. Trump could have endorsed it -- could have insured its passage. He did not. If the Dems were so conspiratorially-minded, why were they the ones promoting a paper trail?

 

Trump's current stance is pure hypocrisy. 

 

Unfortunately, his dimwitted fans don't even know that the SAFE Act existed. Go on: Try to educate them on this topic. They won't hear you.  

Clean elections advocate Jennifer Cohn is a Dominion critic because she does not like the way Dominion creates a paper trail. Nevertheless, she understands that Dominion's system is far more trustworthy than the one provided by ES&S, the election software provider which the Republicans never criticize.

I told ya.

@SidneyPowell1

& the GOP just want to switch out Dominion for ES&S of the vanishing black votes & software bug that wld have allowed it to install unauthorized software throughout the US, potentially going back years. What a scam. They care not for integrity.

4/ Oh look! Black votes vanished from Diebold machines serviced and maintained by ES&S in Memphis too! https://t.co/XL13Zc0T2k

— Jennifer Cohn ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) December 2, 2020

6/ “Experts find nearly three dozen U.S. voting systems [supplied by ES&S] connected to internet” https://t.co/fQIutsWzWV

— Jennifer Cohn ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) December 2, 2020

Cohn also directs our attention to this earlier twitter thread.

A “bug” identified in a September 2020 TX examiner’s report would have allowed voting machine vendor ES&S to install unauthorized software on its DS200, DS850, DS450, ExpressVote & ExpressVote XL voting systems which are used throughout the US. 1/ sos.state.tx.us/elections/form…

I’m not saying that ES&S DID exploit this bug to upload unauthorized voting-system software. The point is that it opened the door to this possibility and, for some reason, @TXsecofstate withheld its report disclosing the defect until yesterday.

 

Did they patch the security hole? If so, did the EAC certify the patch? Because I found no reference to such a patch on @EACgov’s website.

 

How many voting systems in how many states were potentially impacted? I don’t know. But the systems listed are used in many states. Maybe this was addressed and remedied everywhere it needed to be between September 2020 & the election. But I’m not in a mood to “assume.”

How many prior elections were potentially impacted by this “bug” that allowed ES&S to install unauthorized voting-system software IF it chose to do that? 2016 perhaps? 

 

Why don’t Republicans want to investigate ES&S, which is larger than Dominion and more glaringly corrupt? The GOP’s singular focus on Dominion is bizarre and, quite frankly, suspicious in itself. 

And I felt that way even before learning a few days ago that ES&S’s hash script had this “bug” that would have enabled it to install unauthorized voting-system software if it chose to do that (which is a big “if”). But still. Damn this is big. 

 

To be clear, if this bug involved Dominion, Sidney Powell and QAnon would falsely claim that it proves “fraud”. It doesn’t prove fraud and it doesn’t involve Dominion (the only vendor the GOP is targeting, which is odd in itself). It provides what I wld call inquiry notice. 

 

It provides reason to investigate and that’s what I plan to do.

One of her readers adds:

This alleged "mistake" would have allowed not only ES&S to install unauthorized software. It would have allowed *anyone* to install unauthorized software.

Bottom line: Dominion appears to be innocent, while ES&S is about as trustworthy as a three-dollar bill. Yet the deceitful Republicans want to do precisely nothing about the true culprit. 

 

Why?

 

Could the blind eye turned toward ES&S have anything to do with the extremely suspicious pro-Trump results from Miami Dade, where people voted in ES&S machines?  

According to a Vice Motherboard report, seven Florida counties connected election systems to the Internet for months, possibly years. Experts warn that these connections could have been exploited by hackers.

At least 19 of the systems, including one in Miami-Dade, were still connected to the internet as of August.

The systems are made by Election Systems & Software, one of the country’s top voting machine companies. Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said 49 of the state’s 67 counties, including Orange, use ES&S equipment.

I'm all in favor of a revote using paper ballots -- IN FLORIDA. Why don't the Trumpers focus on the real election malefactors?

 

Here's a wild thought: Perhaps Barr -- normally Trump's doormat -- would not go along with Trump's cries of "vote fraud" because a genuine investigation of our election system might uncover the chicanery of ES&S.