80 clergy tell Ohio board of elections that voting looks good on paper

MANSFIELD — While sixty-six of the eighty-three poll locations in Richland County are located at churches, some faith leaders do not like voting machines, nor do they care for electronic tabulators. Federal cybersecurity officials have verified there are software vulnerabilities in certain ballot-marking devices. The clergy say the chief problem is machines know how to ‘push their buttons’ ….literally.

Following special elections, a group of faith leaders sent a letter to the Board of Elections thanking them for using paper ballots as the primary method of voting.

Pastor Chad Hayes, one of the clergy co-signers, commented, “It is our understanding the Board of Election Directors recommended using paper ballots as the primary voting method for the August 8^th Special Election, allocating nearly twenty-thousand paper ballots.  With a 37% voter turnout, we believe the special election went smoothly and efficiently.”

The pastor went on to say, “As lead clergymen from eighty congregations, we do not pretend to be experts in cybersecurity or voting technology.  However, when issues of morality and election integrity are at play, we get involved.”

The clergy wrote in the letter, “This past summer the courts finally unsealed a report from twelve months ago by cybersecurity analyst J. Alex Halderman.  The report confirmed votes can be altered in Dominion ICX voting machines by malware and that Dominion software can be hacked.   Even federal cybersecurity officials have verified there are software vulnerabilities in certain ballot-marking devices made by Dominion Voting Systems.  In fact, the vendor’s own employees have expressed serious concerns about the security of their own machines.”

The clergy noted that voter fraud exists in all forms, whether with voting machines or paper ballots.  The point can be made, paper ballots counted locally by hand presents less opportunity for fraud.

“We believe since the Board of Election appears to have paper ballot voting ‘down to a science,” says Pastor Les Farley, another clergy co-signer. “It would be wise and prudent to utilize paper ballots as the primary voting method and to utilize hand counting for all future elections.” 

A growing number of jurisdictions have recently replaced electronic voting machines with paper ballots.  Several of these include: Osage County, Missouri, Shasta County, California, Nye County, Nevada, Cleburne County, Arkansas, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska.

The clergy continue to believe relying on electronic tabulators and voting machines is opening Pandora’s Box. In 2021, seventy-two clergy wrote they did not trust election machines due to misleading claims by the election machine vendor about the security, neutrality, and transparency of its services.

Pastor Les Farley commented, “Either by hook or by crook, domestic and foreign actors are targeting our elections. We need to be wise about using any electronic system, especially considering the U.S. government agencies have already been hacked at least seven times in 2023 alone. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 2:13, “Then I saw that wisdom surpasses foolishness as light surpasses darkness.”

The Bottom Line:

The Bible says in Galatians Chapter Six, “Do not be deceived: GOD is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

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