Demands from United Sovereign Americans – “a movement born from disinformation and voter intimidation.”

United Sovereign Citizens – “The Whereas and What-for clause section“:

• Quote above: (democracydocket.com) How United Sovereign Americans is Radicalizing an Anti-Voting Movement
• (Reuters) Trump, allies are laying the groundwork to contest potential election loss | Reuters
• (LATimes) Inside the far-right plan to use civil rights law to disrupt the 2024 election
• (brennancenter.org) The Election Deniers’ Playbook for 2024
• (brennancenter.org) Frivolous Lawsuit Targets Maryland’s Voter Rolls and Voting Systems
• (Maryland Matters) Judge dismisses federal lawsuit seeking to halt Maryland’s elections
• (Maryland Matters) Elections board asks federal judge to dismiss lawsuit challenging Md.’s elections system
• (democracydocket.com) United Sovereign Americans Files Lawsuit Targeting Pennsylvania’s Voter Rolls
• (spectrumlocalnews) New York attorney general sends cease-and-desist letter to group accused of voter intimidation
• (democracydocket.com) “Cease and Desist Notification and Document Request” for Marly Hornik, NY Citizens Audit Civic Fund, Inc.
• (democracydocket.com) Federal Court Dismisses Right-Wing Lawsuit Attempting to Upend Maryland Election Administration 

• Whereas it is a recognized civil right in the United States for every citizen to have free and fair elections. “And the right of suffrage can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen’s vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise” (Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 544 (1964))
  • This is fancy-sounding nonsense. “The crux of USA’s argument is that inaccurate voter rolls lead to illegally cast votes, which is a civil rights violation because the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right for people to choose their own elected representatives. When an election is marred by hundreds of thousands of illegal votes, it dilutes the power of lawful votes and violates the civil rights of U.S. citizens, the group claims. 
  • Leah Tulin, a senior counsel in the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program, told Democracy Docket that it’s not hard to see why this might seem like a compelling argument to get people on board with USA’s efforts. “Saying ‘this is about civil rights and the right to suffrage’ sounds appealing,” she said in an interview. “But it actually turns civil rights laws on their heads and has absolutely no basis in either law or fact.”
  • The problem is that this plan is based on data compiled by its volunteers who don’t have the necessary election expertise or training to properly interpret, which United Sovereign Americans is then presenting to the court as fact.” 
• Whereas it is the duty of our election officials to guarantee our elections are accurate and free from distortion or manipulation “Congress seeks…to guard the election of member of Congress against any possible unfairness by compelling…everyone concerned in holding the election to a strict and scrupulous observance of every duty devolved upon him while so engaged…The evil intent consists in disobedience to the law.” (In Re Coy, 127 U.S. 731 (1888)).
  • In their list of demands (see below), they contradict themselves by wanting to require that an outside “expert” to come in to do audits, not the duly-elected elections officials themselves. Way too many cooks in their kitchen, apparently.
• Whereas our constitutional system of representative government only works when the following four tenets of an election are upheld:
  • 1.     The Voter Rolls must be accurate (National Voter Registration Act, 1993)
    • It is phrased a little differently in real life: “The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) has two major aspects related to voter registration: maintaining accurate voter rolls through list maintenance and ensuring every eligible citizen has the opportunity to register to vote through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and designated NVRA Voter Registration Agencies (VRAs).“
  • 2.     Votes Counted must be from Eligible Voters (U.S. Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment, Section Two). 
    • This section of the 14^th amendment states that the right to vote is limited to “(White) male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States” as long as they are not untaxed Native Americans.
  • 3. The Number of Votes Counted Must Equal the Number of Voters Who Voted
    • This is not how real life works. People send in blank ballots, people end up not voting the entire ballot, snapshot of voter count is 15 day before election. People registering after 15 days before, would add more people.
  • 4.     There Can Be No More Than One in 125,000 Ballots in Error by the Voting System (Help America Vote Act, 2002 (HAVA)) 
    • Our elections comply with all applicable Federal and State standards. This random number from self-appointed armchair experts means nothing if it’s not already printed in a current standard.
    • (We looked this up: According to the Act, error rates shall comply with the standards established under section 3.2.1 of the voting systems standards issued by the Federal Election Assistance Commission. “For each processing function indicated above, the system shall achieve a target error rate of no more than one in 10,000,000 ballot positions, with a maximum acceptable error rate in the test process of one in 500,000 ballot positions.” (https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/eac_assets/1/28/Voting_System_Standards_Volume_I.pdf))

SHOW YOUR WORK, USA!

• Whereas as open-source audit of the California 2022 General Election conducted by California citizens has uncovered evidence of massive inaccuracies that appear to violate both federal and state laws, including:
  • 5,886,198 ineligible or uncertain registration violation found within the California state voter roll database.
  • 2,776,939 votes cast by ineligible or uncertain registrants.
  • 123,785 more votes counted that voters who voted. No on know who cast them.
  • 2,776,849 apparent voting violations in excess of the legal standard of system accuracy for a valid federal election. Maximum allowable system errors for the 2022 general election in California was 90.
  • Certification as defined by law, an attestation of accuracy and compliance, appears to have been fraudulent and illegal.
    • Much pseudo-facting going on here, marked by the liberal use of the words “APPEAR” and “APPARENT” here, contrasting with confident statements of exact numbers they just made up. “The grifters have evolved,” David Becker, leader of the Center for Election Innovation & Research said. “They used to just say, ‘There’s so many dead and illegal voters on the list.’ And then they started coming up with a really specific number … as if there was some analysis that went into that.”
    • The Brennan Center calls lists like that above “amateur data matching.” “Activists are being encouraged by those who claim the 2020 election was “stolen” to perform their own amateur data matching. They are using National Change of Address lists, tax assessor data, a portal operated by government contractor Schneider Geospatial, public map services, and public voter data from multiple states to make inferences about current voter eligibility and past election legitimacy. In doing so, they are cobbling together incomplete datasets that can later become “evidence” for candidates to baselessly challenge the legitimacy of the election if they lose.”
    • The voter base constantly changes. Their numbers are not identified by an exact date, timestamp, and source material, and are not actually being reviewed by real experts, but armchair warriors who watch videos online.
    • These random numbers mean absolutely nothing to a real expert on voting. Claims that “more votes were counted than voters” are standard signs of false claims.
    • Speaking of false claims…election denier claim that dead people are voting and empty lots are the homes of registered voters. Outraged canvassers who say that they found an empty lot or a street corner instead of a house should remember that homeless people can register from a street corner, a park, or an empty lot described clearly enough that the registrar can determine one’s voting district.
    • Resource material about false claims by amateur data matchers/election deniers.
      • “Damage done: Audit leader’s testimony sets off nationwide wave of misinformation.“
      • “Citizen Integrity” teams efforts could be groundwork for next false claims about election results.
      • Vote “canvass” features big allegations, zero evidence, outright falsehoods.
      • Evidence undermines Trump campaign’s claims of dead people voting in Georgia.
      • No, dead people didn’t cast half of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election votes.
      • 7 facts about voting – and myths being spread about them.
    • Chaos – The point of all this is in the last phrase. They want us to believe that election certifications by our elected officials cannot be trusted, are most likely inaccurate and therefore future certification of elections should be halted. They have a whole page on their website devoted to their campaign of lawsuits.

United Sovereign Citizens – Their demands:

When we say that the right to vote is under attack, we’re not talking about hypotheticals. It is under attack right here, right now with Republicans' "SAVE" Act.

Let me break down why: pic.twitter.com/XtOzZnxYEd

— Rep. Summer Lee (@RepSummerLee) July 10, 2024

1. Proof of citizenship, identity and eligibility to register and vote, not anonymous attestations.
   • “Proof of citizenship” – This seems, on the surface, innocuous. However this is one of the most insidious ways to limit access to the vote, and the GOP has put this language in the SAVE Act, a bill that just passed the House.
     • “More than 9% of eligible voters (21.3 MILLION PEOPLE!) have no proof of citizenship readily available. And at least 3.8 million don’t have these documents at all, often because they were lost, destroyed, or stolen.” Only about 48% of U.S. citizens have a passport, and driver’s license and tribal ID cards do not prove a person’s citizenship and so couldn’t be used to register under the SAVE Act.
     • Read this statement from the League of Women Voters!
   • In California, voters provide proof of US citizenship when they register by listing  their name, birthdate, and drivers license/state ID or last 4 digits of SSN to verify their identity. They attest to the validity of the information under penalty of perjury when submitting the application. Proving your citizenship at registration negates requiring voters to submit proof every time they vote.
   • “Anonymous attestations” isn’t even a thing. From the National Voter Registration Act of 1993: “The application also must include a statement that specifies each eligibility requirement (including citizenship), contain an attestation that the applicant meets each such requirement and require the signature of the applicant under penalty of perjury.“
2. Voter rolls certified accurate and available for public review and challenge 30 days before the start of early voting. Voters added after that date must bring proof of citizenship, identity and address in person to a qualified official at each polling place.
   • In California the deadline to register to vote is 15 days before the election. Anyone who misses that deadline must register and vote in person, and they will utilize a provisional ballot that won’t be counted unless and until their registration is verified.
   • An extra requirement above and beyond what is necessary on a voter registration application is against CA state law. They are subject to the same attestation requirements as everyone else.
3. Hand-marked secure ballots similar to currency. Where imaging technology is used for tabulation, the security features must be verifiable in the ballot image.
   • In California, ballot paper is watermarked and can only be printed by state-authorized vendors. 
   • CA’s ballots comply with the requirements of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
4. Systems, machines, security measures, infrastructure and conduct are required to be compliant with federal law for fraud prevention regarding risk assessment, certification, testing and implementation.
   • All equipment and procedures are in compliance with state and federal law, and periodic reports are submitted as required.
5. Adjudication must be signed-off by party, candidate, and trained citizen witnesses after being given full and effective observation rights. Candidates and trained citizens must be allowed immediate access to ballots, ballot images and CVRS.
   • In California the adjudication process is always observable, and performed by teams of two specially-trained election workers who must agree on the voter’s intent. If they cannot agree it is elevated to a supervisor. If the supervisor cannot make a determination, there is no vote counted for that contest.
   • For election security, ballots are only handled/viewed by authorized personnel. Seriously, does no one remember the issues with Cyber Ninjas? 
6. Ballots, regardless of entry source, election operations, and systems must maintain ene-to-end chain of custody from voter to vote count to final canvass, including auditability and witness transfer with paper records.
   • In California, chain of custody is strictly maintained by requiring at least 2 election workers in the presence of ballots at all times. When ballots are being transported, collection bags are sealed and records kept of the workers doing the transporting.
7. A NIST-compliant, randomized, statistically valid end-to-end audit, with a 95% confidence level, of all elections pursuant to the 14th Amendment, Section 2 must be performed. These audits are to be conducted by qualified, insured and bonded security, forensics or financial auditors, not personnel from within the election system. Reconciliation will include the vote count, real physical ballots, adjudication, CVRs, ballot count, qualified voter count, custody transfer, and all other paper and electronic election systems, including logs. 
   • They want you to be overwhelmed by officious, technical-adjacent language, and maybe make you believe that they are actual experts. Plus, you might overlook some little poison pills they’ve inserted. So let’s just break down this super-dumb entry into smaller pieces…
     • NIST stands for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. NIST works with two partner agencies: the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), and the CISA Election Infrastructure Security organization, along with the election community to develop standards, create guides and research voting issues.
     • Our County Elections Division ALREADY follows NIST and state standards and meets any percentage issues THEY REQUIRE! Meticulous record keeping is required at every step of the ballot handling process, from the voter sign-in to the drop box retrieval. They report our results of pre-election logic and accuracy testing and post-election manual tally audits to the CA SOS.
     • Poison pill alert! Their note that we bring in outsiders to check our election results is classic election-denier diversion – trying to foster mistrust of the very people that we voted for. Highly recommended by her predecessor and mentor, Mark Lunn, our Ventura County Clerk-Recorder’s experience and competence in this highly skilled, technical, and non-partisan job is why we ELECTED her over her challengers. Managing all parts of our election process is her job, not that of some unelected randos.
     • These yahoos keep randomly throwing in references to the 14th Amendment, Section 2. This is hilarious. It’s the voting amendment that only references “male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.” Wait…let’s fix this…”WHITE male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.”
       • They NEVER MENTION any other voting amendments like:
         • The 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote in 1870. But many weren’t able to exercise this right. Some states used literacy tests and other barriers to make it harder to vote.
         • The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, gave American women the right to vote.
         • The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, eliminated poll taxes. The tax had been used in some states to keep African Americans from voting in federal elections.
         • The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age for all elections to 18.
8. If the total of all unique variances above is more that 10% of the margin of victory, a new election must be held in the state for those candidates affected, unless the issues can be probably corrected by a manual hand recount and a full review of records.
   • Oooh, so bossy! Our highly competent Elections Division resolves issues according to state and Federal law, not some random orders by these guys. If they really want to order us about, they should put in the work.
     • NIST offers opportunities for engagement: “If you are interested in working with us, please read the pages for your area and email us.  Note that we love to work with students!”
9. Waiver of requirements is not allowed. Only end-to-end system compliance, from registration through certification, can guarantee the intent of the people is accurately recorded.
   • Seriously, are they through yet? No. Here is where they declare all election results moot, and ask those in charge of certifications to withhold them. If they don’t, they’ll sue. “Frivolous Lawsuit Targets Maryland’s Voter Rolls and Voting Systems”Their lawsuit against Maryland was dismissed.

Additional resources

• (brennancenter.org) The Election Deniers’ Playbook for 2024
• (CA Sec. of State) California’s Voter’s Choice Act
• (League of Women Voters) Voter’s Choice Act Makes Voting Easier
• (protectdemocracy) A Democracy Crisis in the Making
• (futureofcaelections.org) Resource Summary: Voter’s Choice Act
• (aclu.org) How Donald Trump’s Election Lies and Other Anti-Voter Policies Will Continue to Impact Our Democracy
• (aclu.org) ACLU Releases Roadmap to Combat Voting Rights Threats Posed by a Second Trump Term
• (aclu.org) TRUMP ON VOTING RIGHTS – Threatening Representational Equality, Restricting Voting Access, and Undermining the Integrity of Elections
• (brennancenter.org) Threats and Intimidation Are Distorting U.S. Democracy – A new Brennan Center report documents rising abuse of elected officials
• (brennancenter.org) Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth
• (brennancenter.org) Frivolous Lawsuit Targets Maryland’s Voter Rolls and Voting Systems
• (newrepublic) How to Crack Down on Election Deniers? Make Them Pay. Literally. Not only is election denialism antidemocratic. It’s expensive—it cost at least half a billion dollars after 2020. The solution? Make the denialists pay. Here’s how.
• (ctvnews.ca) Crush of lawsuits over voting in multiple U.S. states creates a shadow war for the 2024 election.
• (Governing) Nearly Every Battleground State Is at Risk of Election Denialism Interfering in 2024
• (electiondeniers.org) The landscape of Election denial in America
• (American Oversight) THE ELECTION DENIAL MOVEMENT’S MISGUIDED PUSH TO HAND-COUNT BALLOTS