Dec. 19, 2019, 6:30 AM ESTBy Ben Popken, Cynthia McFadden and Kevin Monahan
OMAHA, Neb. — Just off a bustling interstate near the border between Nebraska and Iowa, a 2,800-square-foot American flag flies over the squat office park that is home to Election Systems & Software LLC.
The nondescript name and building match the relative anonymity of the company, more commonly known as ES&S, which has operated in obscurity for years despite its central role in U.S. elections. Nearly half of all Americans who vote in the 2020 election will use one of its devices.
That’s starting to change. A new level of scrutiny of the election system, spurred by Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, has put ES&S in the political spotlight. The source of the nation’s voting machines has become an urgent issue because of real fears that hackers, whether foreign or domestic, might tamper with the mechanics of the voting system.
That has led to calls for ES&S and its competitors, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and Austin, Texas-based Hart Intercivic, to reveal details about their ownership and the origins of the parts, some of which come from China, that make up their machines.
But ES&S still faces questions about the company’s supply chain and the identities of its investors, although it has said it is entirely owned by Americans. And the results of its government penetration tests, in which authorized hackers try to break in so vulnerabilities can be identified and fixed, have yet to be revealed.
A lawsuit filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) alleges that there are at least 21,000 dead people on Pennsylvania’s voter rolls. The lawsuit claims that Pennsylvania failed to “reasonably maintain” their voter registration records under federal and state law in time for the 2020 presidential election.
“As of October 7, 2020, at least 9,212 registrants have been dead for at least five years, at least 1,990 registrants have been dead for at least ten years, and at least 197 registrants have been dead for at least twenty years,” the lawsuit states.
“Pennsylvania still left the names of more than 21,000 dead individuals on the voter rolls less than a month before one of the most consequential general elections for federal officeholders in many years,” the lawsuit continues.
According to the lawsuit, about 92 percent of the 21,000 dead people on Pennsylvania’s voter rolls died sometime before October 2019. About 216 dead people show voting credits after federally listed dates of death in 2016 and 2018, the lawsuit alleges.
“This case is about ensuring that those deceased registrants are not receiving ballots,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement. “This case isn’t complicated.” He continued:
For nearly a year, we’ve been offering specific data on deceased registrants to Pennsylvania officials for proper handling ahead of what was expected to be a tight outcome on Election Day. When you push mail voting, your voter list maintenance mistakes made years ago will come back to haunt in the form of unnecessary recipients and nagging questions about unreturned or outstanding ballots.
In May, Pennsylvania election officials admitted that duplicate ballots were mailed out to registered voters. Likewise, Judicial Watch sued Pennsylvania for allegedly having 800,000 inactive voters on their state voter rolls.
The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The case number is No. 1:20-cv-01905.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
