Our elections belong to the citizens, not the government. If we aren't able to get access to our own election data, how are we able to hold our government accountable? Government officials are servants of the citizens, not the other way around.
In August of last year grassroots group SC Safe Elections filed a claim against the State Election Commission (SEC) and 8 counties to gain access to the Cast Vote Records for 2020 and to preserve the 2020 election data.
Cast Vote Records are the electronic record of a voter’s selections: information from a scanned ballot image is transferred to a spreadsheet that shows all of the vote selections of an election in the relative order of tabulation.
Cast Vote Record FOIA requests in SC were repeatedly denied even though 27 other states and DC provide these records. The “red” state of SC will not allow their citizens access to the CVRs so that they can validate an accurate vote count. This is particularly troubling as our SC state constitution in Article II Section 1 states,
“All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, but the ballots shall not be counted in secret.”
If our ballots are being fed into a tabulator that counts the vote and we can’t verify the progression of the count, isn’t that counting unverifiable and unable to be audited? Furthermore, our ballots are counted using a barcode on the ballot so we can’t truly verify our vote visually from the ballot - we have no idea if the bar code accurately reflects our choices.
Our State Election Commission (SEC) claims that there is Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on ballot images and that somehow the CVR report could be tied to a voter which is not true as expert witnesses will attest.
The SEC and counties responded as follows:
· They counter-sued the citizens requesting the CVRs. Yes, Regular citizens are being punished for asking for data.
· Due to law-fare, the defendants have dragged this case out by delaying discovery and even denying the existence, knowledge, and location of CVRs as well as knowledge of the definition of PII (personally identifiable information). (In depositions they admitted they do have access to the data).
Note that analysis of Cast Vote Records across the country found statistically impossible anomalies and what appears to be a similar algorithm across states, counties, and even machine manufacturers. Why is our election commission trying too hard to block access to the data?
The case is now going to be heard likely in late August/September
This has cost SCSE tens of thousands of dollars and they are looking for support to win this battle.
What can you do?
What is needed from you –
Please go to the SCSE’s website scsafeelections.org
Call Governor McMaster’s office at (803)734-2100 and Attorney General Wilson’s office 1-803-734-3970 and politely ask them to drop the countersuit and to stand for election transparency by allowing public access to Cast Vote Records!
Give to the SCSE to help them raise legal funds for this effort. They are a small grassroots group doing this on our own time and dime so any support you can give us is greatly appreciated. GiveSendGo.com/SCFOIA
Pray for the SCSE team to prevail in this lawsuit to ensure South Carolina elections are more transparent, accurate, accountable and auditable. This is a spiritual battle as much as anything else.
Members of the SCSE share:
This is an important battle. We are fighting hard for election integrity; we believe we can win this battle and also set a precedent for other states in the nation. If FOIA laws are disrespected and citizens need to spend thousands of dollars to fight this in our courts we have lost government accountability and transparency.
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