Vermont uses Dominion voting machines but does not use Smartmatic software, Deputy Secretary of State Chris Winters told Vermont Daily this week.
Earlier this week, Winters confirmed that Vermont uses Dominion voting machines, “a much older model than those being called into question by the conspiracy theorists.” Yesterday Vermont Daily posed a follow-up question: “What software is used to tabulate the votes? Is it Smartmatic?” Winters’ response is printed verbatim below.
“Our tabulators do not use Smartmatic software.
“It may also be of interest to you and your readers to know a bit more about the process we use to ensure votes are counted accurately and securely:
“Approximately 155 towns use tabulators. The rest are hand count towns. All towns in Vermont use Accuvote Optical Scanner vote tabulators. This is an older model that has not been newly manufactured for many years. We are still using them because they have been well-maintained and do not see a large volume of ballots like in other states (low mileage). These employ basic optical scanning technology that reads the ovals marked on paper ballot by the voter. They do not create an image of the ballot like many newer models. There is no weighted or fractional voting option on these machines.
“The tabulators are never connected to the internet or to each other. The results from the tabulators do not pass through a corporation or third party. The tabulators produce a paper printout of the results. The data is transferred from the tabulator tape printout, by hand, by the clerk, into our election management system for the purpose of results reporting.
“In the 48 hours after the election, the clerks do a very careful matching of the voter entry checklist and the number of votes counted to ensure they match and confirm their results.
“After the election, the Secretary of State’s Office conducts a random audit of at least six towns where we pull all of their paper ballots and rerun them through different machine provided by a separate, independent auditing company. We have been doing this for many years and have found that the tabulators we use are more accurate than hand counting. In those audits, we have never found more than a few vote difference, often caused by the human transcribing of the results and not the machine itself. These machines are highly accurate and trustworthy based on that experience and if you ask a town clerk, they will tell you the same.
“The other states being called into question in the presidential election also have paper ballot backups and do similar post-election audits.
“People are right to ask questions. However, wild accusations without at least some evidence to back it up simply undermines faith in our elections and has in fact resulted in death threats to good, hard-working election officials of both parties. Press conferences, online videos and tweets are not evidence. Looking to the court cases, we have yet to see these same allegations of widespread fraud presented under oath and with admissible evidence.”
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Categories: politics
Guy, Great and rapid research on an item about which all of us are concerned
Fortunately Vermont does NOT have “Power political machines” \
with great Ambitions and evil intent.
Hurrah for Vermont
This erases some of my fears. But not all. Why was Vermont named as one of the eight states in the “September 2020 survey” that reflects Over-voting, if the voter rolls are scrubbed by Town and City Clerks according to the law? I am on fire about what I am learning about the November 3 election process in certain states and want reassurance still about our state’s election process.
no one accused vermont of voter fraud, but you have no facts about other states!!
So then it calls the question about why in the 20 years since I have voted here did the tabulation machine spit my ballot back out after I fed it in. And then by magic it was accepted the second time I fed it in. Then the poll worker stated, gee it’s been doing that all day. This was at 7:30 am 30 minutes after the polls opened. Not saying anything is wrong but very suspicious and maybe we ought to be asking more questions!!!
There are actually 37 comments, but I am only seeing 4.
People have the right to be suspicious. Just because somebody is suspicious about something, that makes them a “conspiracy theorist”? The initial suspicion wasn’t necessarily the machines themselves, it was the broken pipeline, the fact that those certain counties all stopped counting all of a sudden when Trump was ahead by so much and then all of a sudden at 3:30 am all the hundreds of thousands of ballots coming in for Biden and hardly any for Trump. That is what people were initially suspicious about and they have every right to be. All the other suspicions followed like dominos. If this is election fraud, this wouldn’t be the only country that it has happened to and to think the same thing can’t happen here is ignorance. Don’t give us this “conspiracy theorist” talk. It really undermines your voters.
Dominion machines have been used for years to steel and rig elections. The fact that they have been brought into question, should be enough to concern every one in Vermont. Tabulators are electronic counters. They count the number of times something happens. So therefore electronic tabulators can be open to electronic/programing manipulation. Then there is the issue of mail-in ballots. Mail-in ballots are wide open to fraudulent activity, and counting. The fact that the makes and models of voting machines are not make public information to the people of Vermont. You must ask your self why not.You can call me a “conspiracy theorist” if you like, but the thing I got out of this last General election is that you can’t trust elections in this Country.