After the 2020 election, many of us knew things were not right. If you have any real experience with numbers, these didn’t add up. Much of the country started trying to get audits done and we had little success. At least not publicly. More on that in a day or so. The AZ audit and others did bring out a good bit of information and if you paid attention to all of the material, it was pretty damning. It failed to result in traction and most people moved on to simply trying to get rid of the machines. In my mind, it doesn’t matter how the votes are counted, it has to be done in a very open manner, and has to be audited just as any other critical transaction is. That’s where I’ve been focusing my efforts.

I have been working on more than a full-time basis to get the documents necessary for us to understand how our elections work. We actually have some good laws, but they have been saddled with some lousy interpretations. I believe that we should have access to nearly everything, and I’ve been fighting for that. Over the next week I’ll recap the fight and where we are now. At first, I thought I’d be requesting documents and the reviewing data, but I’ve hardly touched the data. I’ve been entirely consumed with the fight for the documents. The main requests were for the images that are captured of the ballots, and for the Cast Vote Records, which should detail how the ballot was voted, but there were other documents needed as well.

When I make a request, I always learn something. I learn how much of a fight you are going to make to keep me from having it. I learn who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. If I get the document, I learn a bit more about the election system, and if I don’t - I learn where the resistance is and what arguments they are using to keep me away from it. At times I’ve framed a request just to evoke a response.

One such effort was for manuals on the voting equipment. The law is very clear that we should have access to them, but I knew nobody wanted to give them up – so with the help of Dayna Oliver, I requested them. From over 20 counties. The purpose was to try and get as many versions as possible, but failing that, to find the resistance. There was a lot. Because of the way the law works, the equipment manufacturers were notified that I had made the request and were able to respond with their arguments. I got a 14-page response from both Hart and ES&S. I took them on, but this was a lot for an old Crew Chief to handle. One of my readers arranged a meeting with a prominent lawyer who would be known to many of the people on my pages, and he advised me to drop it. I considered doing so, but nah. I don’t quit. The “court” in this instance was to be the Open Records Division of the Attorney General's office. A staff lawyer. It’s not a huge victory, but I won on every issue but copyright. Copyright law is tough, and I knew it was over my head, but it’s also not well-developed law as to how it pertains to public how copyright and public information intersect is not well-developed law. In the end, I won the right to go review the documents, but not to copy them. I already had many of them, I just wanted to fill in the holes and see what their arguments were. This helps us know how legislation needs to be changed.