Three Republican candidates running for Governor in the Republican convention on May 8th are saying the proposed software used to count the votes cannot be trusted.
Candidates Amanda Chase, Kirk Cox, and Glenn Youngkin have written a letter to RPV Chairman Rich Anderson expressing their concerns:
“The current method for counting, tabulating, and calculating the votes being recommended by the Rules Committee utilizes untested and unproven software that creates uncertainty, lacks openness and transparency, and is inconsistent with our calls as a party for safe and secure elections,” they wrote. Anderson did not immediately respond to the candidates or to a message from The Washington Post seeking comment.
Convention votes are usually counted by hand but that will be difficult this year with more delegates expected to participate and with ranked voting on the ballots. From the WashingtonPost.com,
As many as 40,000 people are expected to file to be delegates. Even if only half turn up on May 8, that would exceed the 12,000 who participated in the last GOP gubernatorial convention.
Walter and Bonnie Burkhardt of Blue Ridge Software Consulting have presented the state GOP’s governing body with a software system that they say can handle complex calculations and a large number of ballots.
Chase, Cox and Youngkin urged the party to take several measures to ensure integrity, including using ballot scanners or a “carefully organized and consistently monitored hand count.”
They encouraged the party to hire a vendor with expertise in ranked-choice voting that incorporates county-based weighting. And they urged that ballots be counted at polling places and that any transported elsewhere for counting “be sealed, documented, and witnessed by observers from each campaign prior to transport and upon arrival at the counting location.”
The State Central Committee will consider this issue again in a meeting tonight. It can be viewed here on Facebook, beginning at 7:00 pm.
More on the story here at the Washington Post.