Election Transparency Breakthrough: John Brakey Introduces ABE on Freedom’s Phoenix with Ernest Hancock
TUCSON, AZ — The nonprofit organization AUDIT USA has launched a powerful, free election verification tool called “ABE” to enhance transparency and trust in election results.
Designed for accessibility, ABE enables anyone—from media and election officials to candidates and the public—to independently verify election outcomes through digital ballot images and Cast Vote Record (CVR) databases, all within Microsoft Excel on the Microsoft Office platform.
A big thanks to Ernest Hancock for hosting me on Freedoms Phoenix again. It was an energizing conversation, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to connect on such meaningful issues in elections.
The story of ABE: In this thought-provoking interview, two politically opposed but aligned voices confront the troubled state of U.S. elections in 2024. Both highlight the urgent need for a system that is transparent, trackable, and publicly verifiable. They advocate for the release of ballot images and cast vote record databases, arguing that these tools could help prevent manipulations or errors—because seeing is believing, and facts are the foundation of trust. They clarify that voting is a private act, yet each vote, once cast, becomes a secure part of the public record as an anonymous ballot. This video unpacks the complexities of our election process and underscores a key message: without transparency, we face a future clouded by doubt and disillusionment, risking further mistrust, division, and chaos.
To learn more, also visit: “Digital Ballot Images: Key to Trustworthy Elections & Bridging Our Great Divide.”
Ballot images, digital scans of paper ballots generated during the tabulation process, preserve each voter’s original marks, creating a robust digital record for independent verification. These images, used by voting systems in 95% of U.S. jurisdictions, enable a direct comparison with the CVR, a digital file summarizing how the voting system interpreted each ballot.
One minute on how it works: Titled: Publicly Verified Elections and An Informed Public are Key to De-Corrupting Our Democracy:
ABE’s verification process is straightforward: it cross-references ballot images with the CVR, ensuring that machine tabulation aligns with voter intent. Each ballot image is hyperlinked to its corresponding CVR row, allowing users to audit results by precinct or individual contest and investigate irregularities such as overvotes and undervotes. By analyzing data at the precinct level, ABE offers detailed insights into voting patterns, revealing demographic and historical trends and uncovering potential anomalies.
Beyond serving as a verification tool, ABE promotes election integrity by fostering transparency. AUDIT USA emphasizes that evidence-based audits, which are accessible to anyone, counteract misinformation and build confidence in election outcomes. ABE is available for Election Systems & Software (ES&S) systems, with plans to support additional platforms.
John Brakey, co-founder of AUDIT USA, highlights the importance of public access to election records: “In recent elections, too many trust results only when their candidate wins. ABE allows anyone to verify outcomes independently, ensuring accurate, transparent results for all.”
To use ABE, users can request ballot images and CVR data from local election offices via public records requests. AUDIT USA encourages election officials to streamline access by posting these records online for the Public to access.
Our goal is to empower voters by providing verifiable, precinct-level data that ensures election results are both accurate and trustworthy. If anyone on your team is familiar with Microsoft Excel, they’ll find ABE’s program incredibly user-friendly. In under an hour, they can start comparing precinct ballot images to official tallies in the CVR database, verifying that everything matches. This is what we’re offering—transparent, verifiable elections.
The stakes have never been higher. We’re seeing increasing disillusionment and mistrust in the electoral process. Our tool gives voters the ability to verify election results directly, helping restore faith in our democratic system. We believe this is the most effective way to ensure election integrity and accountability. Basically, no more Wizard of Oz type system.
Named in honor of Abraham Lincoln, advocating for public oversight, “ABE” also stands for “A Better Election.” Since 2005, AUDIT USA has advanced election verification and continues to pioneer ballot-image audits as the future of election transparency.
Ready to See ABE in Action? Watch our 19-minute demonstration video to witness how ABE can transform election audits:
Readers are invited to try ABE themselves by evaluating the 2022 General Election in Somerset County, MD. Download everything you need from this WeTransfer link, including step-by-step instructions for using ABEin file “G”. (This is a Reusable link for updates on ABE: https://bit.ly/4dBomce )
More information on ABE: HOPE ON THE HORIZON - Election Transparency Made Simple: ABE Makes Election Verification Easy—And It's Free if You Already Have Microsoft Office Excel and Simple to Use. Try our beta version to learn more: Link to this document: https://bit.ly/4hm2gxj
Contact:
Response to Thom Hartmann’s “The Recession Racket: Musk, Trump, and the Billionaires’ Blueprint for Profit”
Sadly, it's all too true! Most Americans live in the United States of Amnesia. Thank you, Thom, for reminding us that the Trump years weren’t about us; they were about the “morbidly rich.”
As a transparency activist in elections and the director of the 501(c)(3) organization AUDIT USA, I’ve dedicated my life since 2004 to rooting out corruption in elections and protecting democracy. I also happen to have ADHD—driven to fix things by understanding why they break in the first place. I've traveled the country to understand the problems. Back in the early 1970s I was Psychotherapist after going through the program in Maine called Elan One, I rose to be senior troubleshooting director over all facilities.
In April 2021, I served as deputy liaison for the Maricopa County Arizona recount, under Ken Bennett, former Arizona Secretary of State and now Ken is my brother from a different mother because of what we went through together. Initially, we entered the audit with an open mind, but it wasn’t long before we recognized that we were surrounded by “Parrot Election Experts”—talkers, not doers. The Cyber Ninjas excel at putting on a show, pushing out real experts, and pretending to know what they’re talking about while collecting donations to “protect the republic.” They don’t hold press conferences; they run infomercials—like the propaganda film The Deep Rig and the closed Senate hearings—avoiding any real questions from the public or media.
I learned from my attorney and best friend and co-founder Bill Risner, that Truth is a public service! A grifter is someone who swindles you through deception or fraud. Synonyms include fraudster, con artist, cheater, confidence man, scammer, hustler, swindler, etc. by the they make great Fake Experts.
Looking back, the Maricopa audit launched with an 11-hour public hearing that felt more like the ‘Rudy Giuliani Grifter Show.’ These so-called experts misled and exploited people, siphoning millions from Americans who were vulnerable to their misinformation. They even ran a daily grifting routine, broadcasting on all nine audit cameras and mobilizing supporters on Telegram with morning prayers to lull them into parting with their money.
It’s painful to admit, but the Democratic Party, which recognized my election work by naming me runner-up for state Democrat of the Year in 2006, turned against me for my role in this audit. I didn’t go into it as a Democrat; I went in because, after 17 years of studying election issues, I knew I had to observe it firsthand. That’s a story for another time, which I plan to write up after the election. By the way, since when has simply annoying a large group of people being led by grifters ever been a idea or real solution?
We at AUDIT USA are known for stimulating public debate and trying to break up groupthink. Groupthink is a way of thinking where members of a cohesive group accept a viewpoint, or a conclusion, whether it is correct or not, which then becomes a group consensus.
Groupthink stifles debate and ridicules other viewpoints. It is, sadly, effective because other ideas, facts, and opinions are shut down. The dangers of Groupthink: and Wikipedia
For those who haven't read my op-ed on the morbid rich called: “Democracy in Peril: A Well-Orchestrated Decline?” here is the link: https://johnrbrakey.substack.com/p/democracy-in-peril-a-well-orchestrated
Excerpt: Many people attribute the root of our current political crisis to polarization and tribalism, driven in part by social media algorithms.
This "Mirror Effect" intensifies the divide:
Republicans view Democrats as an existential threat, and vice versa. However, polarization may be a symptom rather than the cause. The real cause could be a well-funded, strategic takeover of key institutions—the GOP, the Supreme Court, state legislatures, redistricting processes, and Congress—with the ultimate goal of establishing rule by the wealthy.
Hope, Peace, Love, & democracy. John Brakey
Are voter's names scanned in and visible?