Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
At LITOS. A brilliant mind is smart, but a brilliant
team is smarter. A ship that finds enemy subs is smart,
but an autonomous fleet that's smarter. Defending against cyber attacks smart,
stopping attacks before they start smarter, and using AI tools
as smart, but integrating trusted mission AI into your technology
(00:21):
is smarter. We're not just making technology solutions in national
security and health. We're making smart smarter Litos.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, you voted in Harris County. Well, actually, if you
just voted in Texas, but in particular Harris County for
our intents and purposes, for our concerns, would it shock
you to know that if they wanted to see how
you voted, they could they could look up how you
voted David as an individual who you voted for. I
think all of us would like to work under the
(00:51):
idea that we're casting a secret ballot, but evidently that's
not necessarily the case. Joe Nixon joins US Public Interest
Legal Foundation. That group filed a lawsuit against Tarascunny. Welcome,
sir to the program. How did we find out that
this was going on?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Actually, Jimmy, thanks for having me on. It's been a
well known secret for a long time. It's caused by
use of vote centers, and it's particularly pronounced with regard
to early people who early vote, which are now more
than half of us. So it's basically the cause is
(01:30):
the accountability.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
You have to account for every ballot and every vote.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
And when you register go to an early vote center,
it records you electronically, sends a signal out to all
the other early vote centers to know that you're at
that location.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
And so we know that a.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Person from a particular precinct may have voted Tuesday, the
first week of early voting, at one fifteen, and we
can check see on the ballot itself what precinct that
person was from. It matches, and you can you can
go back and match voters to ballots and ballots to votes.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
The public can because all of this.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Information is subject to Freedom of Information Act request.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Okay, so it's not just Harris County that could look
at how you voted. Others could look at how you
voted as well. Yes, of course, holy.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Right, And so that's a that's the main problem, and
it's been going on for years.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So is anybody actually looking at how we voted? What
what purposes, would they or intended uses or unintended uses
could be fine for something like this, I guess from
a from a few seriously, just from a commercial standpoint,
if you know how I voted, then you could target
to me with marketing. Right.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Well, worse, the opportunity for malicious mischief is.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Unbounded, sangon, Are you saying that, For example, I know,
Jimmy Barrett that you voted all Republican and this is
going to be a close election. We need to go
in and change some of those votes.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Well, it's like this. You want to raise your boss
can look up how you voted. You want a promotion,
they can look up how you voted. A university can
determine how a person voted before they admit him into school.
You need a kidney transplant, Well let's see who the
kidney goes to based upon how you voted. We want
to extort money out of somebody, Well we're going to
(03:32):
look at your wife's ballot. It's the opportunity. And that's
why it's so important to have a secret ballot. So
the fundamental question is and that the question we have
brought to the court is does the United States Constitution
under the first and fourteenth Amendment provide for a secret ballot?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Do you have the right of a to vote secretly?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It's not explicit in the United States Constitution and it's
not set out anywhere in there.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
So it's it's something that we it's a it's a
it's a case the.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
First impression, it's an initial question, and it needs to
be decided in the affirmative. Is a winner without a
secret Without a secret ballot, we are all in trouble.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
So to protect that secret ballot, would you go in
front of the state legislature or would you go in
front of Congress?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Well, uh, the leg the state legislature for searching. Then
I States Constitution has the has the initial opportunity to
fix the problem. But so like the Secretary of State
of Texas, who's in charge of all.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
The voting, has issued a uh an advisory asking all
of the counties to withhold personal identifying information from both
the pole book and the ballots.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
The problem is.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
When you do that, you cannot then audit the election.
The public needs to be able to audit the election.
So if, for example, in Precinct four ninety nine, if
you know that fourteen hundred people voted, you need to
have fourteen hundred ballots from Precinct four ninety nine, so
(05:13):
the precinct information needs to be on the ballot. So
the problem is that the electronic recording of who voted
and when compared to the information on the ballot allows
people and the government to track people the ballots in
vice versa, and you have to be able to do
(05:36):
that in order to audit. You have to have this
certain information or an audit unless unless we go back to.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Signing in on your precinct in.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Only allowing for voters in precincts, because then you only
have one precinct book and it's just a different process
of recording who voted.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
When I got you, we're run out of time job,
but I want to first of all, thank you for
what you're doing, and please keep us posted on how
this is going this Joe Nixon Public Interest Legal Foundation,
seven twenty eight
At LITOS. A brilliant mind is smart, but a brilliant
team is smarter. A ship that finds enemy subs is smart,
but an autonomous fleet that's smarter. Defending against cyber attacks smart,
stopping attacks before they start smarter, and using AI tools
as smart, but integrating trusted mission AI into your technology
(00:21):
is smarter. We're not just making technology solutions in national
security and health. We're making smart smarter Litos.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, you voted in Harris County. Well, actually, if you
just voted in Texas, but in particular Harris County for
our intents and purposes, for our concerns, would it shock
you to know that if they wanted to see how
you voted, they could they could look up how you
voted David as an individual who you voted for. I
think all of us would like to work under the
(00:51):
idea that we're casting a secret ballot, but evidently that's
not necessarily the case. Joe Nixon joins US Public Interest
Legal Foundation. That group filed a lawsuit against Tarascunny. Welcome,
sir to the program. How did we find out that
this was going on?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Actually, Jimmy, thanks for having me on. It's been a
well known secret for a long time. It's caused by
use of vote centers, and it's particularly pronounced with regard
to early people who early vote, which are now more
than half of us. So it's basically the cause is
(01:30):
the accountability.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
You have to account for every ballot and every vote.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
And when you register go to an early vote center,
it records you electronically, sends a signal out to all
the other early vote centers to know that you're at
that location.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
And so we know that a.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Person from a particular precinct may have voted Tuesday, the
first week of early voting, at one fifteen, and we
can check see on the ballot itself what precinct that
person was from. It matches, and you can you can
go back and match voters to ballots and ballots to votes.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
The public can because all of this.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Information is subject to Freedom of Information Act request.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Okay, so it's not just Harris County that could look
at how you voted. Others could look at how you
voted as well. Yes, of course, holy.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Right, And so that's a that's the main problem, and
it's been going on for years.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So is anybody actually looking at how we voted? What
what purposes, would they or intended uses or unintended uses
could be fine for something like this, I guess from
a from a few seriously, just from a commercial standpoint,
if you know how I voted, then you could target
to me with marketing. Right.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Well, worse, the opportunity for malicious mischief is.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Unbounded, sangon, Are you saying that, For example, I know,
Jimmy Barrett that you voted all Republican and this is
going to be a close election. We need to go
in and change some of those votes.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Well, it's like this. You want to raise your boss
can look up how you voted. You want a promotion,
they can look up how you voted. A university can
determine how a person voted before they admit him into school.
You need a kidney transplant, Well let's see who the
kidney goes to based upon how you voted. We want
to extort money out of somebody, Well we're going to
(03:32):
look at your wife's ballot. It's the opportunity. And that's
why it's so important to have a secret ballot. So
the fundamental question is and that the question we have
brought to the court is does the United States Constitution
under the first and fourteenth Amendment provide for a secret ballot?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Do you have the right of a to vote secretly?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It's not explicit in the United States Constitution and it's
not set out anywhere in there.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
So it's it's something that we it's a it's a
it's a case the.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
First impression, it's an initial question, and it needs to
be decided in the affirmative. Is a winner without a
secret Without a secret ballot, we are all in trouble.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
So to protect that secret ballot, would you go in
front of the state legislature or would you go in
front of Congress?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Well, uh, the leg the state legislature for searching. Then
I States Constitution has the has the initial opportunity to
fix the problem. But so like the Secretary of State
of Texas, who's in charge of all.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
The voting, has issued a uh an advisory asking all
of the counties to withhold personal identifying information from both
the pole book and the ballots.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
The problem is.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
When you do that, you cannot then audit the election.
The public needs to be able to audit the election.
So if, for example, in Precinct four ninety nine, if
you know that fourteen hundred people voted, you need to
have fourteen hundred ballots from Precinct four ninety nine, so
(05:13):
the precinct information needs to be on the ballot. So
the problem is that the electronic recording of who voted
and when compared to the information on the ballot allows
people and the government to track people the ballots in
vice versa, and you have to be able to do
(05:36):
that in order to audit. You have to have this
certain information or an audit unless unless we go back to.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Signing in on your precinct in.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Only allowing for voters in precincts, because then you only
have one precinct book and it's just a different process
of recording who voted.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
When I got you, we're run out of time job,
but I want to first of all, thank you for
what you're doing, and please keep us posted on how
this is going this Joe Nixon Public Interest Legal Foundation,
seven twenty eight
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