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Category: Election Integrity

ballot
November 27, 2023
Jake Welch
Election Integrity

PA Dem Admits No Way to ‘Restore Trust’ With Voting Machines.

Pennsylvanian officials are fuming about voter confidence in the electoral process being undermined after touchscreen voting machines used in the state’s local elections suffered a serious glitch earlier this month. The error caused “significant confusion” among election safety workers and members of both parties, with Northampton residents who voted in person on November 7th learning their printouts from Election Systems and Software (ES&S) voting machines did not match the votes they had digitally submitted. Instead, the machines swapped voters’ choices in the written section of the ballot.

This was not the first instance of the same machines suffering glitches. In 2019, they significantly undercounted the number of votes for the Democratic candidate in the judges’ race.

ES&S and Northampton say the errors were spotted and did not impact any results. A growing number, however, have begun questioning whether it is too risky to use the machines in the 2024 presidential election. Especially since Northampton is a contested county in the key state of Pennsylvania.

No Trust.

“Since 2019, the theory has been well, that was a big mistake, but we caught it and we’ve implemented new processes to make sure nothing like that would ever happen again,” said the chair of the Northampton County Democratic Party, Matthew Munsey. But after the latest glitch, “I don’t know how we can restore trust with these machines.”

Republican Committee Chair Glenn Geissinger argued: “In 2019, when the issues came up with the touchscreens, we were told, ‘Don’t worry about it. The cards are recording the votes… OK, you’re telling me now, in 2023, ‘Don’t worry about what’s printed on the card?”

Multiple voting rights groups have since called for a full investigation into the incident. Phillip Hensley-Robin, the executive director of one of the groups, said in a statement, “We must reassure voters that steps are being taken to prevent this kind of mistake in the future.”

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Pennsylvanian officials are fuming about voter confidence in the electoral process being undermined after touchscreen voting machines used in the state's local elections suffered a serious glitch earlier this month. The error caused "significant confusion" among election safety workers and members of both parties, with Northampton residents who voted in person on November 7th learning their printouts from Election Systems and Software (ES&S) voting machines did not match the votes they had digitally submitted. Instead, the machines swapped voters' choices in the written section of the ballot. show more
November 18, 2023
Election Integrity

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Establishes Legal Defense Fund Amid FBI Probe.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has created his own legal defense fund, The Eric Adams Legal Defense Trust, amid ongoing investigations surrounding his mayoral campaign. The purpose of the fund is to enable the mayor to receive donations of up to $5,000 outside of the standard campaign period. The law requires Adams to disclose contributors who donate $100 or more, and prohibits his government subordinates and anyone doing business with the city from donating.

The fund’s creation is in response to a probe by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York related to the alleged influx of foreign funds into Adams’s 2021 mayoral race. An affidavit signed by Adams, posted by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, says the trust is necessary to cover legal costs linked to these inquiries. Peter Aschkenasy, a veteran restaurateur who presided over a nonprofit tied to Adams’s former Brooklyn Borough President role, will serve as the fund’s trustee.

The establishment of the fund follows the FBI’s seizure of two smartphones and an iPad from Adams, part of an extensive inquiry into public corruption allegations, including whether illegal overseas donations were made to his campaign. Last month, the FBI searched the home of one of Adams’ chief fundraisers, Brianna Suggs. Adams, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing, is also under investigation regarding potential ties to a Brooklyn construction firm associated with Turkey and a Washington D.C.-based university with Turkish connections. Investigators are examining whether Adams pressured city authorities to open a Manhattan office to serve as the Turkish consulate. In July, six individuals were charged with using straw donations to contribute to his 2021 campaign.

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams has created his own legal defense fund, The Eric Adams Legal Defense Trust, amid ongoing investigations surrounding his mayoral campaign. The purpose of the fund is to enable the mayor to receive donations of up to $5,000 outside of the standard campaign period. The law requires Adams to disclose contributors who donate $100 or more, and prohibits his government subordinates and anyone doing business with the city from donating. show more
November 10, 2023
Election Integrity

FBI Seizes NY Mayor Eric Adams’s Phones.

Devices owned by Mayor Eric Adams were seized by FBI agents this week, as part of an ongoing investigation into potential corruption during his 2021 campaign. Two sources have disclosed the investigation centers on whether or not Mayor Adams’s campaign conspired with the Turkish government and others to move money around. After being approached on the street, Mayor Adams’s security detail was asked to step aside as agents took custody of two cellphones and an iPad, under the authority of a court-ordered warrant. The devices were returned to Mayor Adams a few days later.

This double-dealing investigation was made public on November 2nd, when the FBI conducted a search at the home of Brianna Suggs, Mayor Adams’ chief fundraiser, and seized several electronic devices along with a folder labeled “Eric Adams”. The federal warrant reportedly sought evidence of a conspiracy to violate campaign finance law between the mayor’s campaign, the Turkish government and Turkish nationals, and a Brooklyn-based developer, KSK Construction, whose owners are of Turkish origin. Investigators are also said to be looking into the mayor’s campaign’s use of New York City’s public matching program, a scheme that matches New York residents’ campaign donations.

Federal authorities are seeking to determine whether campaign members provided any form of benefits to Turkey or the construction company in exchange for donations. Beyond this, other individuals connected to Mayor Adams have faced legal scrutiny, including his former buildings commissioner and senior adviser, Eric Ulrich, who was indicted on multiple felony charges this September. Mayor Adams, a former police officer himself, has maintained that he has always urged his staff to stay within the bounds of law in their professional conduct. The mayor’s representatives and the law enforcement authorities declined to comment on the matter.

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Devices owned by Mayor Eric Adams were seized by FBI agents this week, as part of an ongoing investigation into potential corruption during his 2021 campaign. Two sources have disclosed the investigation centers on whether or not Mayor Adams's campaign conspired with the Turkish government and others to move money around. After being approached on the street, Mayor Adams's security detail was asked to step aside as agents took custody of two cellphones and an iPad, under the authority of a court-ordered warrant. The devices were returned to Mayor Adams a few days later. show more
November 8, 2023
William Upton
Election Integrity

‘Coding Error’ Causes Voting Machines To Flip Votes On PA Ballot Question.

A so-called “coding error” caused voting machines in an eastern Pennsylvania county to malfunction and erroneously tabulate votes on a ballot question asking whether two Superior Court Judges should be retained. Northampton County, Pennsylvania executive Lamont McClure said if a voter marked ‘Yes’ on their ballot the machine tabulated it as a ‘No’, and vice-versa.

The malfunction impacted all 300 of Northampton County’s voting machines according to McClure. The Pennsylvania Department of State said the error was isolated to machines in Northampton and only impacted the retention question for the two judges. No other races on Tuesday’s election ballot were impacted.

Election Systems & Software, the company which manufactured and programed the voting machines, acknowledged they were responsible for tabulation issue. The company claimed the malfunction was the result of human error and was not caught during testing.

After the issue was discovered, the county obtained a court order to continue using the machines despite the malfunction. McClure said election officials would correct the election results for the two judges when the votes are tabulated. The Northampton County executive downplayed the situation calling the malfunction a “relatively minor glitch” and emphasized “everybody’s vote’s going to count.”

The National Pulse previously reported most voting machines will not meet new federal standards in time for the 2024 election, renewing concerns about legitimacy of the results. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has refused to address serious concerns about vulnerabilities in the state’s Dominion voting machines raised in the Halderman Report.

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A so-called "coding error" caused voting machines in an eastern Pennsylvania county to malfunction and erroneously tabulate votes on a ballot question asking whether two Superior Court Judges should be retained. Northampton County, Pennsylvania executive Lamont McClure said if a voter marked 'Yes' on their ballot the machine tabulated it as a 'No', and vice-versa. show more
November 7, 2023
Jake Welch
Election Integrity
Media

REPORT: Feds Censored Conservatives Ahead of 2020 Election.

United States federal government agencies co-ordinated with so-called “disinformation” experts at Stanford University to actively monitor and censor the speech of conservative writers and commentators in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, according to an interim staff report from the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, published on Monday evening.

The report reveals the federal government “effectively outsourced” mass online censorship to the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), led by academics at the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), which pressured social media companies into labeling truthful information, political opinions, and even jokes as “misinformation.”

The EIP, established in the summer of 2020 at the request of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), operated in tandem with the Department of Homeland Security and the Global Engagement Center, a multi-agency entity within the State Department, to allow the federal government to censor information while bypassing public scrutiny and the First Amendment.

Federal agencies and organizations funded by the U.S. government submitted “misinformation reports” directly to the EIP, who would then contact major social media platforms, such as Twitter (now known as ‘X’), YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and Facebook, with recommendations as to how posts should be dealt with. This included reducing the information’s “discoverability,” temporarily suspending accounts, monitoring particular accounts, as well as removing posts.

The taxpayer-funded federal agencies were quick to justify their actions, arguing they have a responsibility to combat potential interference in American elections by hostile foreign actors.

However, the EIP disproportionately targeted conservatives. Vast quantities of truthful information posted by those on the right was marked as disinformation while “false information posted by Democrats and liberals was largely unreported and untouched by the censors.” Those actively censored included Jack Posobiec, Charlie Kirk, Benny Johnson, and even former President Donald Trump, among a large number of others.

“The pseudoscience of disinformation is now — and has always been — nothing more than a political ruse most frequently targeted at communities and individuals holding views contrary to the prevailing narratives,” the report argues. Yet, the unjust surveillance of conservatives by the federal government or agencies thereof is not merely limited to 2020 as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has begun weaponizing its resources to target supporters of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement in the run-up to November 2024.

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United States federal government agencies co-ordinated with so-called "disinformation" experts at Stanford University to actively monitor and censor the speech of conservative writers and commentators in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, according to an interim staff report from the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, published on Monday evening. show more

Editor’s Notes

Behind-the-scenes political intrigue exclusively for Pulse+ subscribers.

RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
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November 6, 2023
Jake Welch
Election Integrity

Dems In 3 States Face Serious Voter Fraud Charges.

Democrats in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are facing multiple allegations of election fraud. Several criminal cases have been opened, with two related to elections held this year and another two concerning previous elections.

Justin Hurst, a Springfield, Massachusetts, mayoral candidate, is facing allegations of bribery after election officials claim they witnessed voters enter the city hall for early voting, who expected cash after casting their ballots. Officials argue the distribution of $10 bills demonstrates “voter fraud.”

A Bridgeport Superior Court Judge, William Clark, overturned the results of another Democratic mayoral election last Wednesday following video evidence of what seemed to be a supporter of the incumbent Mayor stuffing ballot papers into drip boxes. Clark said the video footage was “shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties.” A new election has been ordered.

The Attorney General of New Jersey also announced that two Democrats were charged with election fraud last month. Alex Mendez, President of Paterson City Council, is facing charges for, among other things, conspiracy to commit election fraud, fraud in casting mail-in votes, and tampering with public records. The second, Dr. Henrilynn Ibezim, who stood as a candidate in a Plainfield mayoral election, has been charged with similar offenses. 

Concerns about voter fraud have become increasingly prevalent across the United States, with less than one year until the 2024 presidential election. Over half of the American electorate suspect cheating will affect next year’s election, per Rasmussen Reports.

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Democrats in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are facing multiple allegations of election fraud. Several criminal cases have been opened, with two related to elections held this year and another two concerning previous elections. show more
November 2, 2023
Election Integrity

Judge Overturns Election After Trailing Democrat Magically Wins From ‘Absentee Ballots’.

In a landmark decision on Wednesday, a Democratic primary race in a Connecticut town was overturned by a judge, following allegations that incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim had cheated. Superior Court Judge William Clark concluded due to a bulk of evidence that “the reliability of the result of the election is seriously in doubt.” This move comes after Ganim, who was trailing challenger John Gomes by 487 votes on election night, was reported to be leading by 251 votes the next day due to a sudden influx of absentee ballots.

Judge Clark’s ruling – wherein he expressed profound disturbance at the content of the videos, stating they were “shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties” – was based on the combination of data, which revealed an unusual number of absentee ballots cast in specific districts, and video evidence showing two Democratic officials stuffing ballot drop boxes. In the ensuing court proceedings, both accused officials, Wanda Geter-Pataky, vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, and former city councilwoman Eneida Martinez, invoked their fifth amendment rights.

Despite Clark’s call for a new primary race to be organized because of the doubtful legitimacy of the primary election, plans for the general election on Tuesday remain on schedule. The ballot will list Ganim as the Democratic nominee and Gomes as an independent, per Associated Press reports. This is not Ganim’s first brush with controversy; he was previously found guilty of corruption during his initial tenure as Mayor, however, he was re-elected post his release from prison.

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In a landmark decision on Wednesday, a Democratic primary race in a Connecticut town was overturned by a judge, following allegations that incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim had cheated. Superior Court Judge William Clark concluded due to a bulk of evidence that "the reliability of the result of the election is seriously in doubt." This move comes after Ganim, who was trailing challenger John Gomes by 487 votes on election night, was reported to be leading by 251 votes the next day due to a sudden influx of absentee ballots. show more
November 2, 2023
William Upton
Election Integrity
News

Feds Raid NYC Mayor Adams’s Fundraising Chief in Spiraling Election Finance Case.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing increasing scrutiny over a 2021 campaign finance scandal that saw a former police department colleague, a book keeper, and four construction executives indicted in July for using straw donors to make illegal contributions. Brothers Shahid and Yahya Mushtaq, two of the construction executives implicated in the illegal campaign finance scheme, pleaded guilty in late October to a single misdemeanor conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate in a larger ongoing investigation.

The scheme intended to inflate the Adams campaign’s finances which would increase matching funds it received from the city. The construction executives and former police inspector Dwayne Montgomery – a friend of Adams – believed their efforts would earn them lucrative city contracts once Adams was elected.

Compounding the Mayor’s problems, the home of Brianna Suggs – Adams’s fundraising chief – was raided by the FBI earlier today.

Suggs is reported to have been questioned by agents from the New York FBI office’s public corruption division. A prolific fundraiser, Suggs has already raised $2.5 million for Adams’s 2025 re-elect, and is an integral member of Mayor Adams’s inner-circle.

In addition to the straw donor scheme and Suggs’s FBI raid, other contributions to Adams’s 2021 campaign are drawing the attention of federal investigators. At least three individuals who, according to campaign finance records, contributed $5,000 each to the mayor’s campaign claim they don’t recall ever making the donations.

Vito Pitta, a lawyer for the mayor’s campaign, claimed “the campaign followed every rule and best practice” when processing political contributions. The New York City Campaign Finance Board is in the process of auditing the contributions.

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing increasing scrutiny over a 2021 campaign finance scandal that saw a former police department colleague, a book keeper, and four construction executives indicted in July for using straw donors to make illegal contributions. Brothers Shahid and Yahya Mushtaq, two of the construction executives implicated in the illegal campaign finance scheme, pleaded guilty in late October to a single misdemeanor conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate in a larger ongoing investigation. show more
October 30, 2023
Jake Welch
Election Integrity
News

New Jersey AG Announces Election Fraud Charges Against Two Dems.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is bringing multiple criminal charges against two Democrats – Alex Mendez and Dr. Henrilynn Ibezim – over alleged election fraud in state elections between 2020 and 2021.

Mendez, President of Paterson City Council, is facing a set of fresh charges relating to mail-in-ballot election fraud after he already faced charges in June 2020 and February 2021.

Platkin alleges Mendez collected a large number of ballots from households in violation of New Jersey state law as candidates cannot themselves collect and return ballots for the district in which they are running. The attorney general’s office also claims Mendez’s campaign actively destroyed and replaced ballots if they did not support him, and that he completed ballots if left uncompleted, among a number of other things.

Mendez has been charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud, fraud in casting mail-in votes, unauthorized possession of ballots, tampering with public records, forgery, and falsifying records.

“We allege that Mendez and his associates unlawfully collected ballots and tampered with ballots to give him an unfair edge in the race for the 3rd Ward seat on the Paterson City Council” before “He… allegedly set about undermining our investigation into his and his campaign workers’ unlawful activities,” stated Thomas Eicher, the Executive Director of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.

Ibezim, who stood as a candidate in a Plainfield mayoral election in 2021, has been charged with allegedly directing associates to fill out blank registration applications and bringing nearly 1,000 to a post office. He also allegedly arrived at a post office on “May 18, 2021, carrying a large white garbage bag” believed to be holding registration applications.

Ibezim “allegedly resorted to fraud in an alleged attempt to unfairly prevail in this election. This desperate attempt to artificially and illegally inflate support for his candidacy was designed to not only cheat his political opponents out of a victory, but also to cheat the people of Plainfield out of their right to choose their elected officials,” stated Eicher upon announcing the charges.

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New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is bringing multiple criminal charges against two Democrats – Alex Mendez and Dr. Henrilynn Ibezim – over alleged election fraud in state elections between 2020 and 2021. show more
September 24, 2023
Election Integrity
News
World

Smartmatic Execs Accused in Election Bribery Scheme.

Executives for subsidiaries of Smartmatic, the voting technology company currently suing Fox News for defamation, have been accused as uncharged co-conspirators in a bribery case, according to a court filing.

The allegations emerged in a case against the former chairman of the Philippines Commission on Elections, Andres Bautista, with court documents suggesting the US Department of Justice has filed money laundering charges against Bautista, with four Smartmatic executives implicated in the case. Both Smartmatic and Bautista deny any wrongdoing.

Smartmatic, in a statement, maintained that it has complied with all bidding processes and procurement procedures in the Philippines, adhering to the relevant laws and regulations. The company emphasized that winning bids in the country are not based on a single individual’s preference, but involve multiple technical evaluations and assessments. Smartmatic said the ongoing investigation is unrelated to election security or integrity.

Fox News, which settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems earlier this year, is also facing a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic and its lead counsel, Erik Connolly, is demanding a full retraction and apology from the news network.

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Executives for subsidiaries of Smartmatic, the voting technology company currently suing Fox News for defamation, have been accused as uncharged co-conspirators in a bribery case, according to a court filing. show more