The chairman of Waynesboro’s Electoral Board and its vice chair say they might refuse to certify election results, because machines used to tally ballots could be connected to the Internet and results might be manipulated.
Henry Chambers is not convinced. An expert on voting and a professor at the University of Richmond’s School of Law, he begins the defense of Virginia’s voting system with a simple point.
“Voting machines are not connected to the Internet. The folks who filed the lawsuit are saying: I can’t see the machine count, and I don’t know what the software inside is doing, so that looks like it’s being done in secret to me, but I don’t think that’s how most people would think about the concept of counting in secret.”
And, he says, the machines are routinely checked for accuracy.
“The machines are tried first with a stack of ballots where we know what the count is. We run those dummy ballots through the machine. Machines are certified and then they are sealed with tamper proof tape.”
And after the election, each machine is audited. If the Waynesboro challenge were to succeed, he warns, we’re in for trouble.
“Not only would they have to hand count the ballots in Waynesboro, they’d have to hand count the ballots all across the state. Now have fun doing that!”
Based on past experience with voting machines, ATMs and modern cash registers, he says counting is something they do with great accuracy. People, on the other hand, are known to make mistakes, and the chairman of Virginia’s Republican Party says the suit was brought by a couple of loners and will likely be rejected in court.
Meanwhile, a former candidate for Congress has filed a countersuit against those members of Waynesboro’s Electoral Board.
Former 6th Congressional District candidate Jennifer Lewis said in a filing late Monday night that board members can’t refuse to certify, nor should they.
“I hope with us pursuing this counter lawsuit this will make other localities realize this is not a fight worth fighting," Lewis said in an interview. "We have extremely safe and secure elections and we need to trust the system.”
As of Tuesday afternoon Virginia Elections Commissioner Susan Beals had not yet responded to the original suit challenging certification. In previous statements, though, Beals has said certification is a ministerial duty, not one that can be denied.
The State Board of Elections also has the authority to remove local board appointees if they fail to do their duty.
