By Jennifer Hicks
We need to be contacting our elected officials to conduct our next election in May using only paper ballots and no machines.
ES&S is who the State of Nebraska has contracted with and entrusted with the security of our voting system in Nebraska. I believe the contract is unconstitutional due to the non-disclosure agreements which ES&S requires of the State which would bind them to silence about the results of any security testing.
So even if the State were to learn about insecurities (deliberate or not), they are contracted not to speak to the public or media about it. I believe that such terms of the agreement should invalidate the contract because these NDA requirements pose an impediment and hindrance to our right to a free election. Article 1-22 of our Nebraska State Constitution says that all elections shall be free, and shall not be hindered or impeded in any way which would prevent voters from exercising the elective franchise.
Our voting process doesn't end when we cast our vote--it extends all the way through to the results of how our votes get counted. This agreement with ES&S provides us with no way to ensure that the counting is done without impediment, for even if insecurities in the process are found, this contract would require our government to never notify us of any problems.
How in the hell is that constitutional?
I believe we need to ask our senators to ask AG Peterson to address this. And demands need to be made to Secretary of State Evnen to end this contract with ES&S, which never should have been entered into in the first place, I don't think. (Perhaps, as is often the case, it was signed without ever even reading it. I would not be surprised.)I'd start with contacting Senator Hilgers, who is a candidate for AG, and Senator Clements, who is the only senator in the Unicameral who has spoken out about concerns with our election process. (I have already contacted them both about this. No reply yet.) The terms of the contract with ES&S are ones that Nebraskans never would have given their consent to. This needs to be addressed before the primary.
Paper ballots only. No machines.
mhilgers@leg.ne.gov (Senator Hilgers)
rclements@leg.ne.gov (Senator Clements)
robert.evnen@nebraska.gov (Secretary of State)
ago.info.help@nebraska.gov (Attorney General)