5/19/26 Audit Observation Training
In November of 2025, while observing the audit of the Mayor’s race in Brooklyn New York, I observed the Brooklyn Board of Elections’ Employees copy the machine count election results onto the hand count forms. In other words, they pretended to compare their hand count to the machine count, but in fact there was no comparison happening. They were simply copying the machine count totals onto the forms that are used for hand-counting.
It’s not OK. But since most of the time no one is observing, but a hand full of people, it’s hard to gain traction and get reforms.
SMART Elections is changing that.
We are training observers all over the country on how to observe audits.
We’ll be writing reports and getting the word out about what we find. Because you’d be surprised how often the answer to, “Is the audit meaningful?” Is, “No.”
For example in another part of the audit, I discovered that the two flash drives that record the votes that are supposed to be identical - so that we have 100% confidence in the totals: are often vastly different.
The same brand of flash drive, in the same voting machine, counting the same ballots, comes up with wildly different totals. This is very concerning.
Here is an example:
At a poll site called 10258-Goodwin Sr. Ctr this set of flash drives recorded different vote totals for every candidate that we checked.
This is page 340 of 395 pages for this report. There were 18 Discrepancy reports for this one election in one borough of New York City (Brooklyn.) That amounts to thousands of pages of discrepancies.
We were told each borough has these discrepancy reports.
In this example, not only did the two flash drives record different totals. When the Board of Elections compared those totals to a different scanner, that scanner got a third total. So there were actually 3 different set of votes for Eric Gonzalez on this voting machine:
Flash Drive 1 - 311
Flash Drive 2 - 160
Board of Elections Additional Scanner - 310
There is a difference of 151 votes between the two flash drive vote totals.
There are similar discrepancies for each candidate, including the Mayor’s race.
On this set of flash drives Mamdani receives completely different vote counts for the same ballots on the same voting machine.
Flash Drive 1 - 84
Flash Drive 2 - 244
Board of Elections Additional Scanner - 245
There is a difference of 160 votes between the two flash drive vote totals.
The Board of Elections has so many discrepancies that they’ve developed a form and a procedure for dealing with them.
No one we spoke to at the Brooklyn Board of Elections seemed to think this is a problem.
However we spoke with one of the country’s leading election security experts and he was alarmed by this finding. He said that this type of sloppiness should not be tolerated.
The point of having two flash drives is to have assurance that the vote totals are 100% correct. However if the flash drives are showing different totals on a regular basis then there is no assurance that either of the flash drives is correct. The system of redundancy has completely broken down.
There is also no way of knowing how many discrepancies are actually missed.
In our #CountTheVote program, we’re training people to observe the primaries so that when we get to the November midterms, they’ll be prepared to address any issues that are discovered.
Please don’t wait until November to get involved. Now is the time to prepare, and learn what you need to know.
Tues. 5/19 we’re holding audit observation training 4pm PT/ 7pm ET.
Tues 5/26 we’ll be holding election night reporting training. The times are the same.
After you sign up, Keep an eye out for an email from smartelectionsact@gmail.com
That email gives you the link to sign up to receive the zoom. It may go into spam.
So yes to be clear - 2 signups are required
Sign up on the Google form - look for the email from us.
Use that email to sign up for the zoom link.
This allows us to get the information to fully support you as an observer, like your county and state. But once you sign up you’re good and don’t have to sign up again.
Thx for all your doing!
If you find our work valuable, please subscribe and make a donation as well! All donations are tax-deductible.
We are raising $500,000 in order to roll out full protection for the midterms. We’ve raised over $70,000 for this program and we ask you to do your part. So please go to SMARTelections.us, or use the QR code below, and make a donation.
Anything that you can afford is greatly appreciated, and thank you for all that you do.
We appreciate you.
Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.
~ Henry David Thoreau
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