My opponent in the 2018 general election race for 111th District State Representative has recently claimed that someone is trying to steal “her election.” I’m sure this was just a slip of the tongue, and that she understands that elections belong to the people, and not to the candidates. However, in light of the fact that she claims ownership of this flawed election, I have a modest proposal to put her fears at rest.

Here’s the background: The Ellis County Election Officer has been using voting computers, called iVotronics, which are more than 12 years old, have not been safely stored, have not been well maintained, and which were in many instances malfunctioning even on election day.

The Clerk has stated in a public meeting, since the election, that she did not calibrate the touch screens on all of the voting computers before this election. If that is so, then it is essential for whoever won this election to know that all of the votes recorded for him or her were actually for him or her and not the result of a misaligned touch screen. Numerous voters have claimed that on election day, when they attempted to vote for me, the machine instead showed my opponent’s name as having been voted for. The question is how many people did not notice that before they left the voting booth and pressed the vote button? Only an expert analysis of the machines themselves would tell the tale.

After I decided not to go forward with a formal contest of this election, because the information necessary to conduct a true recount was not provided in a timely manner, and it did not seem that there was time for that to occur before the legislative session begins, a nationally recognized expert on voting machines, especially the iVotronics machine, contacted local people in an attempt to let us know that he is available, at no charge, to perform an analysis of the voting computers and the audit logs from this recent election. He can do that in a matter of hours, if he has the data available to him, in electronic form. His name is Duncan Buell and his accomplishments are available on the South Carolina University website.

Because the deadline had arrived for any such scrutiny to occur, several of my supporters did file a contest in this matter. I support that contest, to the extent that it is intended to find out once and for all of the answers to two things:

1. Did the Election Officer in fact calibrate each and every of the 69 voting computers in Ellis County, Kansas, immediately prior to this election?
2. Does the internal data in those voting computers match the paper record which the Election Officer claims is the final abstract of the results?

If the answer to those is yes, then this contest should be dismissed. If it is no, then the result should be fully scrutinized and determined so that the proper totals are reported to the Kansas Legislature, which makes the final decision in this matter.

Here is the modest proposal and I ask that Barbara K. Wasinger join with me in what follows.

A. Ask the County Clerk to sign an affidavit stating that she did indeed calibrate each and every voting machine, as required by the operating manual for the iVotronics voting computer system, or admit that she did not.

B. Direct the County Clerk to provide to Prof. Duncan Buell of South Carolina University, the following logs, in electronic form:
• The event log called “EL 152” for the 2018 General Election. This is a county-level file and the event logs from each of the iVotronics (voting computers) in the County.
• The actual cast vote record called “EL 155” This is the county-level file of the combined cast vote record for the entire county.
• The system log called “EL 68A” This is the system log from the computer at county headquarters used for collecting and tabulating the results.
• The results file known as “EL 30A” which is the results file precinct by precinct.

C. No matter what the results of this inquiry are, Barbara K. Wasinger, who is a County Commissioner of Ellis County, Kansas, and whose campaign chairman is also a County Commissioner of Ellis County, Kansas, and whose fellow Republican Commissioner, Marcy McClellan, who served on the Board of Canvassers, should call upon the County Clerk to commit to no longer using the iVotronics voting computer system and, instead, use paper ballots, to be counted by machine, in every election from now on.

The cost of conducting elections on paper in a medium size county such as Ellis County is negligible compared to the cost of purchasing new computers or attempting to maintain the existing computers, which are inherently unreliable. Experts estimate that a Clerk would have to conduct 50 general elections before the cost of paper would exceed the cost of voting computers. Had Ellis County used paper only in 2018, we would know the exact results of this election.

If my opponent will join with me in this modest proposal, we can resolve this matter within a week and get on with the business of returning Kansas to fiscal responsibility and restoration of our educational system.

State Rep. Eber Phelps, D-Hays