Only We Can Audit Ourselves

The forensic audit in Maricopa County, Arizona poured fuel on the prairie fire of legislators and concerned citizens who are still asking questions, wondering what happened in their states, and looking to find the truth about the 2020 elections. The fact that AZ is doing the first audit of its kind in the nation has raised a number of interesting issues as to what needs to be looked at and how in an era of technology-dependent elections. It’s no longer simply canvassing, paper ballots, procedures, and tallies. Comprehensive and adequate audits now must include the tech that we’ve allowed to take over our elections. Databases, software, hardware, cybersecurity, data, accreditations, certifications, testing, tech competency, user management, access control, and more. Given all the technology used in our elections, state and federal laws mandating the preservation of unmolested election records must apply to all the tech that produces artifacts. Once these artifacts are reconstructed, it objectively illustrates what happened in any given election.

Up until now, Colorado has remained out of the national discussion about election integrity, fraud, and forensic auditing.  That changed on June 17th when Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced that she and her office would not allow Arizona-style forensic audits by third parties in Colorado. Which is ironic because, she’s essentially claiming that no one may audit the State but the State. Xi whiz, is she just Stalin for time? Given the incredibly complex technical nature of so many of today’s election systems, third parties are the only ones with sufficient technical expertise to provide any understanding of whether systems have been compromised.  Griswold’s announcement on Twitter was so heavily ratioed, she won “the gold standard” award for Tweeting (using the same criteria she used to determine that Colorado’s election system is the “gold standard”).  The responses to Griswold’s ham-fisted, panicked announcement show how witty, hilarious, and ticked-off Colorado voters are. Lauren Boebert, Ted Cruz, Jack Posobiec, Boris Epshteyn and other national figures joined in, publicly and rightfully roasting Griswold.   Read more…