On Thursday, the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly chose not to renew the contract with Dominion Voting Systems, the maker of voting and vote tabulation machines widely used in several locations in the United States — and also a company that is widely criticized. The contract extension was to be for five years, but many in the community want the borough to use a more secure method.
The Assembly will have to adopt its final budget by May 8 and may still renew the contract between now and then. Assemblyman Scott Crass said that if the Assembly does not renew the contract with Dominion, the Assembly members who vote against it may be subject to recall “because it’s in our code.” It sounded like a threat against those who might vote to not renew the contract.
Assemblywoman Barbara Haney said “These things could be the greatest thing since sliced bread. That’s not the point. The point is that people don’t want their tax money used like this, period.” She said no member of the public had testified in support of renewing the Dominion contract.
By ordinance the borough must use electronic scan equipment and the Assembly would need to change ordinance to rid itself of the technology for good.
The contract renewal failed on a 4-4 vote, needing 5 votes to pass. The cost of the contract is about $220,000 for five years. That’s enough to replaster the community’s swimming pool, or might be enough to keep a school open.
Dominion has gotten aggressive in defending its reputation and has threatened to sue anyone who the company says spreads lies about its machines.
A federal review of Dominion voting machines identifies software flaws in some models of ballot-marking devices made by Dominion, vulnerabilities that were discovered in Georgia. In theory, the machines could be tampered with, but there was no evidence that that occurred, federal inspectors said.
Dominion has fought back. On its website, it states:
“Dominion is focused on supporting our customers who administer U.S. elections. We are closely monitoring claims around the 2024 election. We strongly encourage people to rely upon verified, credible sources of election information – sources that can explain the many layers of physical, operational, and technical safeguards that exist to protect the integrity of our elections, including use of paper ballots for auditing and recounts. We remain fully prepared to defend our company and our customers against lies and to seek accountability from those who spread them.” Read Dominion’s fact sheet here.
The threat of litigation has put a damper on the public discourse around the integrity of vote tabulation machines and election integrity.
In the Mat-Su Borough, local voting includes hand-counted ballots, after the Mat-Su Borough Assembly chose to ditch the machine method in 2022. The borough still uses the machines as back up.
Many in the Fairbanks North Star Borough would like to follow that model and return to a counting method not relying on algorithms and the internet.
Smartest thing I’ve seen come out of Fairbanks in a while.
Good news now the Lt. Gov. and Gov. needs to get them all out of the State!
I’ll bet Mayor Hopkins didn’t like this outcome. He’s been “depending” on Dominion for all of his elections. Just ask his Uncle Dave, who sits on the Assembly.
Takes a first reading, a public hearing and a second reading to change an ordinance. Easiest thing to do. If you are comfortable with your ballot getting fed into a tabulation machine running on software code that nobody gets to see then you’re extremely gullible.
Dominion Voting Systens and SmartMatic systems are designed to manipulate the tabulation data record allowing remote access control or at a terminal interface on the other side of a locked door in a ‘counting center’ away from party observers with proxy layer emulator code on a thumb drive. DVS and SM use this technique to flip votes from one candidate to another for transmission of results to State Capitals from counting centers or precincts, and then the results can be ‘flipped back’ to cover their tracks. Study the case of Antrim County Michigan 2020 General Presidential Election.
BW: From the official investigation of the case of Antrim County Michigan 2020 General Presidential Election: “Although vulnerabilities in election technology are well documented (see, e.g., [11, 27]), the Antrim County incident was not caused by a security breach. **There is also no credible evidence that it was caused deliberately.** While this report is not a comprehensive security review of Antrims voting system, I note in passing some opportunities for security improvements.” ‘https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/sos/30lawens/Antrim.pdf?rev=fbfe881cdc0043a9bb80b783d1bb5fe9
One thing that Halderman”s report shows is that human error is grossly compounded by the electronic voting system. Especially considering the relatively small population of FNSB, what is the argument for having an electronic system in place at all? You literally cannot justify the expenditure.
There is, of course, possibility of hand counting the ballots, a feature that mitigates against what BW implies is inevitable fraudulent outcome.
Thanks for reporting on this Suzanne.
Paper ballots are a much better and honest way of voting!! Helps eliminate fraud big time!!
Carol–Fairbanks uses paper ballots. They are counted by machines. There is no evidence of fraud in Fairbanks’ elections.
There is no evidence anyone ever investigated odd things that happen during an election either. Why? Because of statements like yours.
Dominion Voting Systems spells is out right in front of everyone DVS. Say it.. Devious
Well, sometimes the hilarity just does not stop. So many of the people commenting here, and who are so staunchly against using modern methods to count votes, know little or nothing at all about computers, their programming, or the technology and security behind them. They fear what they don’t understand in the same way that they probably fear vaccinations, radiation, and flying.
So go ahead, Fairbanks, and count your votes by hand if it will make you feel better. It will be slower and more error-prone than using a Dominion system, but please don’t let progress standing your way.
And if you want to further improve your setup, transport the ballot boxes to the counting offices via dogsled and illuminate your workspaces with whale oil lamps. I mean, if you’re going to go Luddite, you might as well go full-on Luddite. You do, after all, have a strong penchant for extremism.
As someone who was in the computer technology business for over 40 years, I know it is well established that no device connected to the internet can be completely and positively protected from fraud. All modern digital devices operate with literary thousands of machine level instructions (electronic digital operations) for every action taken at the human level. There ALWAYS is a way to get through to corrupt this if enough IS resources are applied. I recommend anyone doubting this watch the 2020 documentary “Kill Chain” where many Progressives and computer experts made this vulnerability the possible reason for previous Republican election victories!
Another point I forgot to mention. “Kill Chain” was produced BEFORE all the crazy COVID initiated unverified “Mail-In” voting got put in place the “swing states”, making the whole voting integrity situation many times worse. It’s a separate problem for verification, but just as critical. Both situations must be addressed before anyone can have confidence in our voting results.
The simple fact that you people fight so viciously to keep this grossly overcomplicated system in place makes your malicious intent completely obvious.
Weird how Alaskans always knew the outcome of elections the same night when hand counting occurred. One cannot fathom why your leftist desire to fight a communities decision to return to the tried and true formula.
People who know way more about computers, software, and the vulnerabilities meet every year to try and break into systems just like Dominion vote tabulators. And, these people point out dozens of easily exploitable gaps in the security. But, no one ever seems to take any action to close those gaps.
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A simple search using your favorite internet search engine will let you know how unreliable these systems are. Try searching on “Dominion voting machine hackable” or “are Dominion voting machines secure” and see what shows up. There are dozens of known security breaches, but districts still insist on using them anyway.
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Now, aside from mocking anyone who is on the other side of the political aisle, is there some point you were trying to make?
The funny thing of it is, we already counted them by hand as well, we always have. People will believe anything.
Sounds like those who enjoy the ability of the tabulator companies to manipulate the vote feel threatened. What’s that line from Shakespeare… “Me thinketh thou protesteth too much” (or something like that…). This is how the left wins elections in a right world.
Question their machines… Get sued… Get raided… Have phones and pillows seized… Can’t imagine why they aren’t trusted… ???
The Hopkins political farm must be devastated.
Luke, junior Luke, uncle Davey, the Guttenburgs, the Kendalls (yes, that Scott Kendall), the whole gang of relatives who’ve been feeding at the trough and telling the rest of us how to live their “quality of life.” With Dominion gone, how are they going to win elections now?
They can still round up all the old, hippy pot smokers and white-haired, wacko climate activists. There are still enough 70 and 80-year old Vietnam protesters hanging by threads who are kicking around the Borough. Get em together for one last election with the promise of free food an anti-Trump rally and another drug party. They’ll be sure to cast one more vote for the Hopkins and Dave Guttenburg. Free beer!!
LOL. The last thing Guttenburg needs is more beer. He already carries a keg around.
This state definitely does not need Dominion voting machines. We should be easily able to hand count less than a million votes and do it right. There is limited possibility of someone hand counting and making purposeful errors versus someone able to get into a voting machine without anyone knowing due to cell phones and electronic messing that can be done without immediate response. Also, Dominion has been found to delete voting records across the Nation contrary to the mandatory records keeping.
Wouldn’t it cost the borough more to administer its elections if it added hand counting? Also, isn’t hand counting generally more inaccurate than machine tabulation?
That all depends.
What does the contract with Dominion cost a year? Compare that to the cost for a hand count. Also, realize a certain percentage of the votes are hand counted anyway as a “check” against the machine count.
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And, you are correct, hand counting can get it wrong. The magnitude of that error is likely miniscule. But, when a machine screws it up, the number of miscounted votes could be more than enough to swing an election.
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Finally, the vulnerabilities of the Dominion system are well known, but curiously the security gaps are rarely closed. Which means bad actors can manipulate the outcome without detection. While humans do have their own biases, their ability to manipulate the outcome without detection approaches zero.
Which leads us back to your first question about cost. Perhaps hand counting is costlier, but doesn’t it make sense to pay more to protect things that are valuable? That is the reason why people buy insurance. Elections, well the outcome of elections, are valuable. Very valuable. And, if it costs a few dollars more to protect and insure that outcome against manipulation, so be it. Money well spent.
Yes and yes, these were both points made. People are really going bananas about stolen elections, but they don’t seem to have a problem if it goes their way…
It’s step in the right direction.
The funny thing of it is, we already counted them by hand as well, we always have. People will believe anything.
“”Assemblyman Scott Crass said that if the Assembly does not renew the contract with Dominion, the Assembly members who vote against it may be subject to recall “because it’s in our code.” It sounded like a threat against those who might vote to not renew the contract.””
Wow is that what you heard? Listening comprehension on Barbara Haney’s part is lacking. She doesn’t understand what’s being discussed. It’s embarrassing and Fairbanks needs to do better. Old bat has dementia and emphysema too. She’s not healthy enough to be trying to meddle in politics.
Hmmmmm. this comment must be from Savannah Fletcher and her little cadre of mean women on the Assembly who don’t understand economics. Rather than engaging in an intellectual discourse, these sorceresses on the Assembly, and their little friend who teaches the art of massaging children, should clean out their own cesspool of hate and vile politics.
Since when did liberals and Democrats understand economics? These idiots never employ common sense, and have no semblance of understanding of how business works. That’s why they flock to government work, ridiculous government grant money, and insane fake science. That’s why Trump’s new economic policy is shaking everything up, and will continue until a new economic model is set in place for America. I feel sorry for you people up in Fairbanks who have idiot local leaders who are stuck in the Dark Ages. Must be something in their water.
Since when did liberals and Democrats understand economics? These idiots never employ common sense, and have no semblance of understanding of how business works. That’s why they flock to government work, ridiculous government grant money, and insane fake science. That’s why Trump’s new economic policy is shaking everything up, and will continue until a new economic model is set in place for America. I feel sorry for you people up in Fairbanks who have idiot local leaders who are stuck in the Dark Ages. Must be something in their water.