BY BRYAN PRESTON | P J Media
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This development is of monumental importance since the state legislatures determine the outcome of the presidential election in a given state. The president wins a state when electors selected by state legislatures conduct a vote in their respective states on Dec. 14. Thus, ultimately, according to the Constitution, the state legislators wind up serving as the kingmakers in a disputed election. See the article “Horowitz: How Republican-controlled state legislatures can rectify election fraud committed by courts and governors - By the proper power our Constitution gives them” at: https://blackrepublican.blogspot.com/2020/11/breaking-supreme-court-justice-alito.html ]
Earlier Friday news broke that a software glitch in the vote-counting software used by
48 Michigan counties allegedly produced a very significant glitch in at least
one of them.
In Antrim County, the software glitch
switched 6,000 votes from Republicans, including President Trump, to Democrats.
The county clerk, a Democrat, caught the issue and it has been corrected in
that county. Antrim County uses Dominion Voting Systems, according to WLNS.
In Oakland County, another glitch temporarily toppled an incumbent
Republican. County Commissioner Adam Kochenderfer narrowly lost in the initial
count, only to have a glitch discovered Thursday that had switched over 1,200
Republican votes to Democrat. Once the votes were properly attributed,
Commissioner Kochenderfer went from loser by about 100 votes to winner by over
1,100. According to the Royal Oak Tribune, Oakland
County uses election software from Hart Intercivic. Hart uses a proprietary
system called Verity.
Eleven Michigan counties use Hart’s systems.
It’s troubling that both glitches switched
Republican votes to Democrat despite apparently occurring in different
underlying systems. All told, 59 of Michigan’s 83 counties may be affected by
these two glitches.
The Michigan Legislature late Friday announced it will be holding a joint oversight hearing
to “ensure the integrity of our state elections.”
“The ongoing turmoil surrounding the recent
general election underscores my fervent desire, and our state’s need, for a
fair and honest result,” state Sen. Ed McBroom (R) said in a statement posted
to Twitter. McBroom called for calm and for people to stop spreading doubt, and
also stated that “ignoring troubling reports and dismissing out of hand
anecdotal evidence that problems may exist” is unacceptable.
In 2019, the AP reported that voting systems in several states were
nearing end-of-life for their operating systems, which would leave them
vulnerable to manipulation if not addressed. Several swing states including
Michigan were among those states named in the report.
The
AP surveyed all 50 states, the District of Columbia and territories, and found
multiple battleground states affected by the end of Windows 7 support,
including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Arizona and North
Carolina. Also affected are Michigan, which recently acquired a new system, and
Georgia, which will announce its new system soon.
States or the counties that own the systems
would have to pay large fees to stay updated and protected against hacking,
according to the report.
The
election technology industry is dominated
by three titans : Omaha, Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software
LLC; Denver, Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems Inc.; and Austin, Texas-based
Hart InterCivic Inc. They make up about 92% of election systems used
nationwide, according to a 2017 study . All three have worked to win over states
newly infused with federal funds and eager for an update.
Systems manufactured by two of the three —
Dominion and Hart — reportedly glitched in Antrim and Oakland Counties,
respectively, both handing Republican votes to Democrats.
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RELATED
ARTICLE
Michigan Legislature Subpoenas Election
Officials
BY BRYAN PRESTON P
J Media
Saturday the Michigan House and Senate met in an unusual
joint hearing to examine questions regarding the elections across that state.
The joint hearing issued subpoenas to the state’s election officials, reports the Detroit Free Press.
The
issuance of subpoenas by Michigan legislative committees, while not unheard of,
is also rare. Saturday’s subpoena requested documents related to Michigan’s
election process.
State
Rep. Matt Hall, R-Marshall, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the
investigation is needed “to provide needed clarity to concerned residents,” and
the subpoena “demonstrates a commitment to getting our election procedures
right in the future.”
House
Minority Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills, called the hearing a
“partisan spectacle,” and a desperate attempt by Republican legislators
to cast a shadow of doubt over the legitimacy of our election.” She called it a
“political stunt designed to undermine confidence in our electoral process and
disenfranchise voters who legally cast their ballots in record numbers.”
Disenfranchisement goes both ways. Illegally cast ballots
and glitches disenfranchise legal voters. Thousands had software or other
errors flip their vote against their intent. At least two Michigan counties experienced such glitches,
in both cases flipping Republican votes to Democrats. The question is, did
similar glitches affect other counties.
In an exclusive report in 2019, the AP included Michigan among a
handful of states that have serious election security issues related to the
software machines in use across the state use. Several 2020 swing states also
have potential security issues, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North
Carolina, and Arizona, among others.