Texas Has Its Own Vote-Counting Issues
Texas has 254 counties. Each accepts delivery of computerized vote-counting equipment, trusting that it properly counts votes. It’s the Texas secretary of state who bears responsibility for reliability and checking that built-in security features safeguard the integrity of the software.
In February 2020, Texas Secretary of State Ruth Ruggero Hughes received a disturbing report about the ES&S election equipment Texas used in some counties. She had assigned Brian Mechler, an expert in electronic data communications systems, to certify the equipment.
“There were a few issues with the hash verification procedure,” Mechler wrote of equipment from the nation’s largest vote-counting software firm, a secretive Nebraska outfit reincorporated as ES&S in 1997.
Mechler’s report on verification issues was an understatement. Hash verification ensures no tampering of a program. It is a critical element in ensuring that the proprietary software counts all votes correctly. With the hash verification procedure having issues, the software could be set, for example, to count every 27th vote for one candidate as a vote for their opponent without the software detecting or recording it was modified.
Hash verification tracks digital fingerprints to monitor any modifications to the software from the time it leaves the vendor to when ballots are cast and counted. If the hash verification procedure is not operating properly, the ability to detect changes and ensure the integrity of software is compromised.
https://www.dcreport.org/2021/01/12/texas-has-its-own-vote-counting-issues/
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