Exposing the Myths: Debunking Lies About Election Integrity

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Notes now the Grassroots Freedom Initiative Podcast Many of Ohio's boards of elections, as well as some politicians and bureaucrats in the Ohio Secretary of State's Office, are lying to Ohioans about the feasibility of moving to paper ballots and hand counting for our elections. There is a small but mighty group here in Ohio working to get out the facts about paper ballots and hand counts.

This video is designed to make you aware of them.

The Coalition of Concerned Voters of Ohio, or CCVO, is a grassroots activist organization that believes the only way to preserve our freedoms, and our constitutional rights is to make sure our elections are safe, secure, and cannot be manipulated.

As they've done their work analyzing documents, scheduling and attending meetings, making public information requests, corresponding with boards of elections and Secretary of State staff, building feasibility models and estimating costs of paper ballots and hand counting of those paper ballots, one thing is clear.

There aren't many people embedded in the election system in Ohio who are interested in doing away with machines, no matter the facts, and they will lie to protect them. Why? That's for you to decide. We're just going to present the facts. CCVO has encountered five big lies they hear from almost everyone in the system.

They are 1. We can't ever go backwards to paper. 2. We can't find people to work the poles. 3. It will cost too much. 4. It will take too long. 5. It's not accurate.

Let's unpack these five lies. Lie number one we can't ever go backwards to paper. This is absurd on its face.

We the People run the show in Ohio and boards of election staff, Secretary of State staff and our elected representatives work for us. If we demand paper and hand counts, we shall get paper and hand counts. Ohio is a deeply Republican state.

No matter what you hear from party operatives, pundits or legacy corporate media. The Republican National Committee recently issued the following statement.

The Republican National Committee supports the rights of counties and states that are willing and able to completely and efficiently implement voting procedures that do not require the use of machines and those that implement hand counting procedures that are fully auditable. What do people in the election ecosystem in Ohio know that the national party doesn't? They haven't been able to answer that question.

A conventional paper ballot or hand count election is not a radical solution to our elections.

Over 24 nations hand count elections, including larger countries like Argentina, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

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People would come out of the woodwork to volunteer to do this. Truly public service.

Lie number three it will cost too much if this is the hill Ohio's election ecosystem wants to die on, they need to start making final arrangements. Machines are absurdly expensive, as are the necessary procedures and work required to use them, store them, transport them and maintain them.

CCVO volunteers have connected with election experts across the country and are using models developed by those experts to estimate the cost of doing hand counts of paper ballots in Ohio counties. They have built feasibility models in Monroe County and Lucas County. You can see those results on the screen.

The savings are monstrous $162,815 in Monroe County annually. $4,044,847 in Lucas County annually.

And even if the hand counting model is off by a factor of 10, off by 10 times, there is still savings in both counties. That's how absurdly expensive machine run elections are. Imagine saving this much money every year.

County commissioners who are responsible for approving funding for boards of elections in their counties should be demanding boards of elections move to paper ballots and hand counts. Lie number four. It will take too long. The model CCVO used showed Lucas County's presidential election could be counted in 14 hours.

With more volunteers, this number could be compressed significantly. But still, we're talking about same day results if counting teams are counting while voting is happening during the day.

If counting couldn't begin until after polls close, results would be available. Worst case, next day. This year California used machines took a month to count votes. How many days is reasonable?

If you can be assured of 100% accuracy? Lie number five it's not accurate. This is an interesting response to CCVO's desire for paper ballots and hand counts.

It appears boards of elections and Secretary of State staffers don't want to allow for after election no cost proof of concept hand recounts so we can get to the truth. Are hand counts accurate? Are machines accurate? How do we know unless we do both and compare the results?

Monroe County's hand count team, the 47 volunteers mentioned earlier, asked their board of Elections to be allowed to do a post-election hand count audit of the paper machine printed ballots for free. Montgomery county refused to approve the free hand count.

Not to be deterred, the Monroe County election activists then thought about putting a citizen’s initiated issue on the ballot for making paper ballots and hand counting the law in their county.

Boards of elections around the state almost completely defer to the Secretary of State for even the slightest contentious request from the voters they serve.

While we have 88 counties in Ohio and 88 county boards of elections, the Secretary of State has amassed significant centralized power and control over what is supposed to be a decentralized system. Monroe county asked the Secretary of State's office for guidance on this request.

Here's a quote from a Secretary of State staffer's email response to Monroe County I just received a telephone call. I am almost certain it was a name redacted by me questioning me about a petition.

I explained that the Secretary of State site has petitions for candidates and she stated this would be a ballot issue. I told her to seek legal counsel.

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Frank into the county and this could pop up across other counties as well.

Not entirely sure that this could be placed on the ballot without going through the county commissioners first and then the cost would be charged entirely to county as well. Not even sure if a citizens initiated ballot initiative can be put on in just one county or if this is only available at the state level.

This doesn't sound like someone who's interested in exploring whether paper ballots and hand counting would be better for Ohio than machines, but that's for you to decide. We hope we've dispelled the notions that these lies promulgate.

If you have interest in understanding how you can do similar work in your county, you can go to the CCVO website's Contact Us tab or send an email to ccvoprotonmail.com one of their incredibly capable volunteers will get back to you. This video is brought to you by the Grassroots Freedom Initiative, or GFI for short.

If you're not already on our email and text lists, please be sure to join our network of thousands of Ohioans. It's easy, free, and we won't ask you for money.

ge or text the letters GFI to: 66866

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