Coalition of Concerned Voters of Ohio
Welcome to the Coalition of Concerned Voters of Ohio (CCVO) website. We are a grassroots organization dedicated to ensuring the integrity of our elections.
The “delete voting machines.org” domain name that brought you here may sound like a radical indictment against the machines, but critical questions about the machines have been ignored and remain unanswered by the Ohio Secretary of State who is responsible for the integrity of our election system.
This lack of transparency is unacceptable and until these questions are answered by having an independent cyber team review of our machines, the machines cannot be trusted and must go!
Mr Secretary- Answer our questions!
Why Focus On
Ohio's Voting Machines?
In recent years, highly credentialed cyber professionals have examined voting machines in other states and found they contain serious security flaws and have documented evidence of votes being manipulated. Since these are the same machines we use in Ohio’s elections, CCVO asked the Secretary of State (SOS) to investigate the matter and suggested that the Ohio Cyber Reserves (OhCR), whose mission is to assist Ohio governmental agencies with cyber issues, perform an independent review team to examine Ohio’s machines. Unfortunately, we were ignored.
Despite Ohio law that says voting machines “shall not be connected to the internet”, and that Ohio is supposed to test that the voting machines do not contain wireless modems which would enable them to connect to the internet, the SOS office has also refused to provide proof that this testing has been done.
CCVO's initial mission was to call for the OhCR to perform an independent review of Ohio's voting machines to determine if they can be trusted. Since the Secretary refuses to answer this call, CCVO presumes that the machines can't be trusted and has led us to call for the deletion of the voting machines.
Breaking News
Unveiling the Concerns: Questions About Ohio's Voting Machines
Why Are These Machines So Complex?
A $10 scientific calculator requires about 5,000 lines of code to perform calculations. In comparison, NASA's space shuttle avionics system needed 500,000 lines of code. So why does the typical electronic voting machine require over 300,000 lines of code—enough to fill 6,000 pages—to perform the simple task of counting votes? Forensic examinations in Colorado have revealed evidence that machines from a major manufacturer were involved in manipulating votes.
Why Are the Inner Workings Kept Secret?
The software inside these voting machines is considered proprietary, meaning neither the federal government, the Ohio Secretary of State, the Ohio Board of Voting Machine Examiners, election staff, nor Ohio voters have access to inspect it. This secrecy raises concerns that individuals with malicious intent could tamper with the software to manipulate election results and leave it undetected during post-election audits.
Isn't the Software Tested for Malicious Code?
Ohio's voting machines are certified by federally-accredited testing laboratories, but these labs do not perform rigorous testing for malicious code. The standards they use are nearly 20 years old and the test is a “preliminary review of no less than 1% of the code to ensure the code is mature and does not contain systematic non-conformities.” In other words, they can still pass certification without testing 99% of the software! An interesting side-note is that one of the primary labs certifying Ohio's voting machines also certifies slot machines which are known to be programmed to favor the house.
Do Ohio's Voting Machines Have Wireless Modems?
A vendor supplying 40% of Ohio's voting machines advertises that its machines can include wireless modems, allowing them to potentially connect to the internet. The machines are not tested for wireless modems when they are certified by the Federal government. Although Ohio law prohibits voting machines from being internet-connected and mandates testing for wireless modems for state certification, the Secretary of State's office has not provided proof that such tests have been conducted. Until evidence is provided, we cannot guarantee that Ohio's voting machines are secure and fit for use in elections.
Over the past year, the Coalition of Concerned Voters of Ohio (CCVO) has repeatedly raised concerns to officials about the security vulnerabilities in Ohio's voting machines. Despite these warnings, officials have shown little interest in addressing the potential risks.
Officials React to Warnings
Number of Ohio Officials Dismissing Warnings About Voting Machine Security Flaws:
Ohio Voting Machines May Not Be Secure For 2024 Election!
Although Ohio law prohibits voting machines to be connected to the internet, many of Ohio's voting machines may contain wireless modems which would allow them to be connected to the internet through mobile cellular networks.
The Ohio Board of Voting Machine Examiners (BVME) is supposed to test that the machines do not contain wireless modems, but when CCVO asked the BVME and the Secretary of State's office to provide documented proof of this, they failed to do so.
One possible conclusion is that the test wasn't done and our voting systems are in danger of being exploited by malicious actors who could manipulate our elections.
Ohio voters demand transparency!
The Erosion of State Control: Federal Influence in Ohio's Elections
Our case study of federal overreach and how Ohio gave away its birthright to run elections.
Can Hand-Counting Ballots Be Relied On To Replace The Machines?
If voting machines can't be trusted, is hand -counting paper ballots a feasible alternative?
Those who defend keeping the voting machines say that there really isn't a suitable replacement for them. They scoff at hand-counting paper ballots as an archaic concept, saying "It would take too much time" or "It's too prone to human error." The fact is that no official in Ohio has actually done a feasibility study on hand-counting ballots to come to a rational and unbiased conclusion. It turns out that it is a time-proven concept that has been adopted by many nations in the world and was the way ballots were counted in Ohio for its first 130 years.