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
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