More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
MTM-Laura Schaar..Election Integrity: The Case for Paper Ballots
What happens when our votes disappear into a technological black box? South Carolina Election Integrity advocate Laura Scharr pulls back the curtain on America's troubling voting systems while offering a surprisingly simple solution.
The startling truth about our elections emerges quickly: most Americans have no understanding of how their votes are actually counted. Our voting systems operate on technical standards from 2005 - predating the first iPhone - and create what Scharr calls a "weapon of vote destruction." She vividly compares it to receiving a bank statement showing only your final balance with no transaction history. Would you accept that level of opacity with your money? Then why accept it with your vote?
Following her recent Gold Standard Election Expo in Dallas, Scharr expertly walks us through her comprehensive four-phase approach to election reform: voter registration, voter validation, tabulation, and reporting. Each phase must satisfy four essential pillars: accessibility, security, transparency, and verifiability. Her team's simple yet revolutionary "Gold Standard Tally Method" relies on just three elements - people, paper, and pens.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when examining President Trump's March 25th executive order, which prohibits barcode/QR code tabulation and requires upgrading to new voting system standards by September 2024. With primaries approaching and certification timelines tight, Scharr explains why we might see hand-counted federal races in 2024 - creating a nationwide demonstration of what transparent elections could look like.
Critics claim hand counting would take too long or prove too error-prone, but Scharr's team has debunked these myths through extensive testing. With properly sized precincts of 1,500 voters, counts can be completed by midnight. A Rasmussen poll revealed that 52% of likely voters across all demographics would volunteer to count ballots in their local areas.
Whether you're deeply concerned about election integrity or simply curious about how your vote gets counted, this eye-opening conversation reveals why election reform must precede all other political priorities. As Scharr powerfully states, "Our ballots shall be cast in secret, but they shall not be counted in secret."
Ready to take action? Visit scsafeelections.org to download the Gold Standard white paper and contact your representatives to demand transparent, verifiable elections that restore trust in our democratic process.
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, dr Robert Jackson, and his wife Carlotta and daughter Hannah Miller. So listen up, because the doctor is in.
Robert Jackson:Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, dr Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty, dusty scrapbook. Well, I'm privileged today to have online with me Ms Laura Scharr from South Carolina. Safe Elections, ms Laura, welcome to More Than Medicine.
Laura Schaar:Well, thank you for having me, Dr Jackson.
Robert Jackson:It's a privilege than medicine. Well, thank you for having me, dr Jackson. It's a privilege, it's my privilege. I'm delighted to have you once again Now. Ms Laura, I understand that you were recently at a very special event out, I think, in Texas, is that correct?
Laura Schaar:That is correct. It was in Dallas, texas, and it was something that I had been thinking about for a very long time with my team, the Gold Standard Election Team, which is a team of people across the United States that I have been thinking about for a very long time with my team, the Gold Standard Election Team, which is a team of people across the United States that I collaborate with, and we just decided to do this. So we planned the entire event and we had it in Dallas and it was called the Gold Standard Election Expo.
Robert Jackson:My goodness Now, who sponsored this event.
Laura Schaar:We did Our team. So we put a lot of money and energy and effort into a really full day and we had over 100 attendees and the whole purpose of the event was to demonstrate the work that we had all done as grassroots election advocates, election reform advocates. So really work together, innovate, collaborate, demonstrate and educate. And it was a fun-filled day. We were there from eight in the morning until about, you know, six at night and we got a lot done, as you can imagine.
Robert Jackson:Well now, who were the folks that were there to see you demonstrate the gold standard election integrity process?
Laura Schaar:Well, we had, obviously other grassroots election experts. We had some election officials. We even had some candidates for Secretary of State there, one gentleman from Ohio. We had lawyers who had been working on behalf of election integrity grassroots advocates and so it was a nice mix of people. The whole uniform issue here was that we all cared passionately about reforming our elections, and that's one of the things that made it different. It wasn't about a bunch of influencers there. We didn't have a lot of you know big names. It was just for the people who were working this problem for the last several years, and so people really appreciated that. They liked that atmosphere. It wasn't open to the public, it was invite only, and it made for a really nice atmosphere and it was just a lovely event.
Robert Jackson:So why was all this so important? Tell me, tell my listeners, why an event like this is so important.
Laura Schaar:Well, because, as you know, we have a new administration with President Trump, and he did sign an executive order on March 25th of this year, and so we thought it was really important, because so many people talk about the election reform but they don't really know what it looks like, right? So we figured we have to show them. If we show them what it means for true reform, they'll get it. So what we did was we talked about, first of all, what is the gold standard for elections and what it means, and so we defined that. And then what we did was we had and I'll explain that just briefly there are four steps in our election process, and we need to reform all of them. It's not just a one little teeny piece that we have to fix. We need to fix the whole process, and that means voter registration, voter validation, which is you know, when you validate, who you are, where you live, that you can in fact vote, you're eligible to vote, and then we have the tabulation of the vote, the marking and counting, and then, finally, the reporting of the results. So each one of those phases of the election needs to be optimized for four different variables, and we call them the four pillars. So we want elections to be accessible, we want them to be secure, we want them to be transparent and we want them to be verifiable.
Laura Schaar:And we wrote our gold standard team the four of us across the United States we wrote a white paper and this is on my site, scsafelectionsorg, as well as goldstandardelectionscom that details exactly how to reach that gold standard. Now, one of the reasons we got everybody together was we said, okay, everybody doesn't understand that third phase, that tabulation phase, and how we would do it. They have questions, they have concerns, so let's show them how we do it. And we had a speed dating of sorts for these election processes. So we had these four different methods in four different rooms, and we actually held this in the museum that Glenn Beck has curated this beautiful museum, it's the American Voyage Experience and each different room had a different method for hand-counting hand-marked paper ballots. And so the attendees we split them up into four groups and they each could go into the rooms for about a half an hour and watch these methods being demonstrated, and then afterwards they could ask questions and we had some panels after that. So that was the whole gist of the meeting.
Robert Jackson:So now, what was the after-presentation opinion of the people who attended and observed the gold standard in action?
Laura Schaar:They were very enthused. They were like we can actually do this and we took a poll of them afterwards and all four of the methods they felt could work. Now I'm partial to ours because I feel like it's very simple and also two of the methods were very Texas-specific, so they required more paperwork, potentially more people, and so ours is just a very stripped-down method and we call our method the gold standard tally method. It is super simple. It is people, paper and pens.
Robert Jackson:People paper and pens. People paper and pens Yep and it's transferable to any state.
Laura Schaar:Yes, it's so easy. Now, certain states have particular rules so you have to be careful and make sure it's modified for your particular state's rules. But this pretty much can be done anywhere and it will be easy to incorporate into the law if you needed to, or to just do it if we had to, because we might be faced to do this given the president's executive order of March 25th.
Robert Jackson:Now what exactly did that executive order say Okay.
Laura Schaar:Well, it's very, very interesting. So what that executive order does is it is focused aating that the states have access to systems that will verify citizenship. There's going to be increased enforcement of that. There's also part of the executive order deals with voter rolls. The Department of Homeland Security is going to review the voter maintenance activities of the states, is going to review the voter maintenance activities of the states, and they're also making available special data to the states so that they can do a better job of cleaning up the voter rolls.
Laura Schaar:Now, on top of that, you have a couple things that I think are going to make the next few months very interesting, and there's already lawsuits flying. Very interesting, and there's already lawsuits flying. So, number one the executive order says that the voting systems that are utilized for now remember, this executive order is for federal elections, but it says that because, just so people know, the states constitutionally determine the location, the manner and the time of their elections. But this is for federal elections and one of the first stipulations is that no voting system can use a ballot with a barcode or a QR code for tabulation. That's interesting.
Robert Jackson:And that's part of the executive order.
Laura Schaar:A hundred percent, and that's part of the executive order A hundred percent. And so right now, if you go to vote in person and you go in, you're going to be making your selections on an express vote machine from ES&S that will put a barcode on your ballot and then you take that ballot and you scan it into a tabulator. So that express vote machine is not going to be able to work. Currently it's not programmed to be able to work without a barcode.
Robert Jackson:I got you.
Laura Schaar:So I don't know if we'll even be able to use the express vote machines based on this executive order for the primary next year. So that's pretty pivotal.
Robert Jackson:I got you Now. So that means for the federal primaries they're going to have to use paper and pen.
Laura Schaar:Well, they're going to at least have to use hand marked paper ballots. So the next thing is what about the tabulators? Because we could hand mark our ballots, just like you would for an absentee ballot right, and then put that into the tabulator. But here's where the executive order also puts some additional stipulations. He states that you must recertify within 180 days of the order, which would be about September I think it's September 21st. Is the cutoff, september 21st of 25, september, I think it's September 21st, is the cutoff, september 21st of 25, to new voluntary voting system guidelines 2.0. And so he's saying you've been operating under 1.0. We want you to take these standards to 2.0, which was actually developed in 21. We are now operating under standards from 2005. Most people don't understand that.
Robert Jackson:Oh, I did know that, I knew it.
Laura Schaar:Yeah, dvsg1, which is what we are certified towards and all ES&S and Dominion systems are, is from 2005. And we are still adhering to that. Now the new system standards came out, the 2.0, in 21. And he's saying not only do I want you to adhere to those, I want you to update those, review and update those, rescind all previous certifications. And so it takes a while to test these systems. So we believe that they're not going to be ready in time for the primaries, which are only a year away, less than a year away in some cases. And so what happens then? That is the big question mark.
Robert Jackson:I got you. I got you Well. So those tabulators are going to have to be upgraded to the new standards, and you think there's not enough time for those tabulators to be upgraded to the new standards? And you think there's not enough time for those tabulators to be upgraded?
Laura Schaar:exactly, and we just purchased new tabulators to the end of I know it was over 20, I think it was 26 million to 30 million dollars, and so are we even going to be able to use those, or are? Is it going to be a situation and I'm just spitballing here is it going to be a situation and I'm just spitballing here is it going to be a situation where they say well, we are the state, we have control, we will count our state and local elections with the machines, and, if we're forced to, we'll hand count the federal elections, which, to be honest, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world either, because we're probably only going to have a couple. Each state is only going to have a couple federal elections. You might have a senator and a congressman that are up, and you have to vote in each precinct for just two federal races.
Robert Jackson:That'd be good because it'll prove to our electorate that we can actually hand count and do it well and provide trust and transparency statewide. That will give confidence to the people that we can actually do this.
Laura Schaar:That's right. That's right. It could be a good pilot test to get that done. So that's kind of where we are. It's a very interesting situation, which is why we felt the importance that we had to get everybody there documented. The Department of Justice we had members of the Department of Justice asking us to provide them because they actually, while we were there that Saturday, they got news that this was going on and they were like we're hearing great, great stuff about this event you're having Send us some information about your methods and how you're counting. And so we actually spent the day prior doing a big videotape documenting our systems and almost doing like a little commercial or infomercial or for lack of a better word about hand counting, and so we're in the process of editing that and we just got the raw footage in. So we're going to try to get that to the Department of Justice because it's so important. If you see it, you believe it and you see how easy it is.
Robert Jackson:Well now, what exactly is the pushback from our legislators? That's a great question why would? Anybody not want to do paper and pen.
Laura Schaar:That's a great question. So the objections, the typical objections, are number one oh, it's going to take too long. Well, we have been able to demonstrate through our multiple tests that we've done, that we can count. We can finish counting in about four hours, so we can get done by midnight. But the key thing there is we need to keep our precincts small. They must be kept to about 1,500 qualified electors and we want to make sure that the counting is done at the precinct only. We do not want it done at the county. In fact we would even recommend that the absentee ballots get sorted and sent to the precinct for counting there. So we can totally do this by midnight if we keep the precincts small. The other objection is well, humans make errors right, but we have developed a system that makes reconciliation super easy, very fast, and in fact, when you think about it, we use hand counting in our audits to confirm the machine accuracy. So really it is the gold standard.
Laura Schaar:The other objection is oh, we're not going to find enough workers. But Rasmussen did a poll I believe it was back in November, right around the time of the election, and they asked likely voters if they'd be willing to volunteer not even get paid to volunteer to count ballots at their local neighborhood area, and 52% of likely voters said yes, and this was across all demographics and all parties. And now the other objection is well, it's hard to find polling locations, and if we make it a federal holiday, then more locations will be available because the schools will be out, and so I think if we have a state or a federal holiday for our elections, that issue gets minimized.
Robert Jackson:Exactly, exactly, my goodness. Well, now let me ask you another question, then what are your recommendations to attain this gold standard?
Laura Schaar:Well, for the gold standard to count, or just the gold standard in general, in general, not just for counting. So for the registration piece, we recommend that everybody gets re-registered. We need to clean the slates because our voter rolls are so dirty across the United States and that if people are deceased or they move, we immediately remove them. Right now it can take upwards of six to eight years for people to get off those rolls if they die or if they move.
Robert Jackson:So even if they have evidence, that only makes sense.
Laura Schaar:No, it doesn't. So that would be one recommendation. And we need to do registration in person with a photo ID and proof of citizenship. We need to do registration in person with a photo ID and proof of citizenship. The other thing with the registration is that voter rolls are free of charge for the citizens to do their own audits and that the maintenance is down at the county level. So that's for that phase. That would be the recommendation there. To reach the gold standard for validation, we need to make sure that we are using paper poll books. Right now we do those electronic poll books. They're not certified and there's a multitude of issues. And, by the way, they're connected to the Internet and we're finding blips and we're not able to reconcile it to the actual voters that often come in the door.
Robert Jackson:And they created a lot of headaches at our last election. Those electronic oh did you? Oh yeah, and there was people calling the county constantly because people couldn't find their name in that electronic book.
Laura Schaar:Yeah, that's not good, and part of it is they instantly freeze the rolls 30 days prior, but then they instantly activate them if they show up, and that's partly because the people aren't coming in to keep active. They need to stay active and you do that by showing up at the primaries. The primaries are the most important election in South Carolina.
Robert Jackson:Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Laura Schaar:So people need to show up and that's like a big commercial for please show up at the primaries, get yourself educated about the people who are running and show up, because that is the critical election in South Carolina. For the vote tabulation, the recommendation is the gold standard tally method and it's one day of voting with minimal absentee balloting. Make it a federal holiday. We also don't want early voting, so that goes away.
Laura Schaar:Hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots at the precinct, like we talked about, and we do that with people paper pens with the gold standard method, and I'm going to be actually visiting a couple counties to demonstrate that method so that people can do it with me and they can see how easy it is, super easy, super quick. And they can see how easy it is, super easy, super quick. And then, finally, reporting. We believe that the reporting needs to be publicly posted at the precinct, like it is now, but also the reports need to go from the precinct to the county, the county to the state. Bipartisan protocols, no third-party contractors like we have now, and basically all documentation goes to the citizens and they can observe. The key thing is, people in South Carolina need to be able to observe every aspect of the process. They need to be able to see the ballots, because right now they won't even let us see the ballots, and the point is that our ballots shall be cast in secret, but they shall not be counted in secret.
Robert Jackson:That's in our South Carolina Constitution Open and transparent.
Laura Schaar:Amen.
Robert Jackson:So that's, the gold standard.
Laura Schaar:Just in a nutshell, but there's more in our white paper.
Robert Jackson:Now, if people want to see this come to pass people paper pen and they want to persuade our legislators to move forward on this, what do you think they need to do? How do they make the people make this happen?
Laura Schaar:Yeah, we need their help. We absolutely need it. It's going to take effort from the bottom up and also from the top down. Now President Trump is doing what he can with the executive order, but people have to demand it. So I would suggest that people contact their state legislators and their election officials. So talk to your county or your state election official, contact your representative and your senator and tell them that you want a voting system by the people, for the people, one that uses paper poll books and hand-counted, hand-marked paper ballots, with one day of voting, and demand that the citizens are able to observe the election process and also the election materials once the ballots are cast, because once they're cast, they're separated from the voter and they're completely anonymous, and the important thing is to spread the news with friends, family.
Laura Schaar:We need more people involved in this effort, and everything goes back to elections. So I know there are hot topics that people care about. Some people are all about abortion. Some people are, you know, minimizing it and getting rid of it. Some people are about the kids and trying to keep, you know, the CRT out of the schools. Some people are, you know, everybody has their own pet issues, but the bottom line is we're not going to fix any of that until we fix our elections, and we're going to lose our constitutional republic if we cannot get rid of the electronic voting system, which I call weapon of vote. It's weapons of vote destruction.
Robert Jackson:Yeah, you're right about that. You're exactly right about that. Well now, does South Carolina's safe elections need any financial support?
Laura Schaar:No, I've been kind of keeping it going for the last several years and you know we do our best. I don't really—this is my passion, and, other than the lawsuit which we had to try to get the cast vote records, which was very expensive we just do our own thing. So I really just am asking people to support by spreading the word, talking to the representatives, getting involved, going to our website, scsafelectionsorg, and learning more and volunteering in their particular county. There's lots of things that you can do to help out. We have some great people all across the state just some friendly, amazing patriots that I call my friends and my family, and that's what I would suggest. Download the Gold Standard white paper, read it, send that to your representatives, tell them this is the kind of solution that you would like to see. We right now have no idea how our vote is counted. It's a big black box.
Robert Jackson:Yeah, it is.
Laura Schaar:If you had a bank that gave you a statement at the end of the month and it just had the total amount with no itemized detail, you would not stand that.
Robert Jackson:You would not allow that you wouldn't do business with them, but that's exactly what we're doing, yeah exactly Well, ms Laura, I'm just pleased as punch with the information that you provide, with the detail that you provide. I appreciate your passion for this, and we in South Carolina have to do better.
Laura Schaar:We do, we're one of the worst states Dr.
Robert Jackson:Jackson, we are, we are, I know we are, and our legislators push back on us like we're a bunch of idiots and we don't know what we're talking about. But we have to do better and I'm calling on my listeners to educate themselves about the voting machines that I think. I'm convinced they're stealing elections across our nation and in South Carolina and we need to push for paper ballots.
Robert Jackson:And we need to push for a much improved tabulating process, and Ms Laura has laid it out for us. She's done the homework for us and it's just up for us to educate ourselves and we need to educate our legislators and we need to demand a better process, a paper-pen-counting process, and it's up to us. We're the people, and the legislators answer to us and we cannot allow them off the hook. So there we are. All right, You're listening to More Than Medicine. My guest today is Laura Scharr with South Carolina Safe Elections. We want our elections to be safe, trustworthy and transparent, and she's shown us how to make that happen. Ms Laura, thank you for being on More Than Medicine. I really appreciate you.
Laura Schaar:Well, thank you for having me, dr Jackson, always a pleasure.
Robert Jackson:All right. Thank you, ma'am. I'll have you back again sometime in the future. You're listening to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr Robert Jackson. We'll be back again next week. Until then, may the Lord bless you real good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Slone Audio Production at bobslone. com.
