In an Era of Division, We Stand for Unity, Compassion, and Publicly Verified Elections by 2026 Midterms
The most effective way to secure elections isn’t through proprietary machines or complex algorithms—it’s We the People, equipped with transparent tools like ABE. Rev 5.8.25
The information below is more than just facts—they are indicators. The significance of these facts should be considered in relation to future events and elections.
The “Cartridge Box” is the fourth and final box in the defense of our Democratic Republic. It's not a box anyone wants to open—but history teaches us that when the other three boxes fail (soap box, ballot box, and jury box), some groups will resort to the last box.
And here’s the FACTS: Gun sales are skyrocketing. According to ABC News (11/3/21), gun ownership is rising sharply among Black, Latino, Asian, LGBTQ, and progressive communities—groups that previously leaned away from firearms.
America holds 40% of all privately owned guns in the world. That’s not just a number—it’s a loud and clear signal that trust in institutions is eroding.
No justice, no peace isn’t a threat: It’s a cry for accountability.
We live in volatile times and the threats are real. As Rolling Stone reported in July 2024:
“IT'S GONNA TAKE A CIVIL WAR: TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPEAKER WARNS OF VIOLENCE IF DEMS WIN”
— Rolling Stone, Tim Dickinson, July 22, 2024
(At a rally in Ohio with J.D. Vance, a GOP state senator claimed a Trump victory was the last chance to avoid a bloody conflict. The video has over 4.4 million views.
As we look toward the 2026 midterms, blind faith is not enough. We need verified elections—with clear, transparent evidence that every vote was counted as cast.
If someone has a better and more affordable system (FREE) than Former SOS of Arizona Ken Bennett’s five-point framework for election verification, I’d like to see it.
Until then, this approach offers a practical, scalable, and fully publicly verifiable solution to rebuild trust in our elections.
Election officials must step up. Tools like ABE (Auditable Ballot Examination) make it possible to perform random, precinct-level audits after results are reported—but before certification.
The verification process needs to be thorough, and with programs like ABE, it can be achieved.
Marisela and I have been married for 46 years—me, a straight white adventurous activist dude, and Marisela, a strong, loving and independent woman.
We experienced firsthand that opposites attract—I am the pepper, and Marisela is the salt. However, what unites us goes beyond our differences—it is our shared commitment to family, country, unity, compassion, and social justice.
Together, we’ve learned that Love and Courage speak louder than Fear and Hate.
My Arizona Brakey Tribe
In today’s deeply divided America, we feel a moral responsibility to stand up and speak out. Because when any group is attacked simply for existing, none of us are truly free.
So we say this clearly and proudly:
We are Jewish. We are Muslim. We are Black. We are Latino. We are Palestinian. We are Gay. We are Trans.
We may not share every identity, but we share the same humanity—and that’s why we refuse to stay silent in the face of tyranny.
Marisela and I believe in an America where people are free to live as their authentic selves, so long as they’re not harming anyone else. That’s what freedom means to us.
Regardless of your political orientation, we understand that many individuals share our concerns. We are deeply concerned about the future of this country and its democratic values and the people we love.
We can't fix what's broken by fighting each other. We fix it by standing united for dignity, truth, compassion, and verifiable elections.
These are the values that define what it means to be American to us.
Let us not be divided by fear—but united by courage, knowledge, and facts.
This is a fact from history from 85 years ago.
Throughout history, real change came not through bullets, but through ballots—and that’s why I fight for election transparency.
I urge everyone to watch this video. 10:27 Minutes “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” narrated by John Lithgow.
Lesson # 2 in particular was my focus:
“Defend institutions. They don’t protect themselves. They fall, one after another, unless each is defended from the beginning.”
I’ve spent the past 21 years fighting for election transparency—ever since witnessing election fraud first-hand on November 2, 2004.
The Implications Were Staggering in The 2006 RTA Bond Scandal
Some of what we found and learned:
The system operator backed up the database after counting vote-by-mail ballots, took it home, modified it in Microsoft Access, and reloaded it the next day—erasing the original count.
Unauthorized summary reports were printed before polls closed, violating state law.
Pima County had also acquired a "Cropscanner," a device capable of pre-programming Diebold memory cards to generate fraudulent results. This purchase came shortly after an alert from Black Box Voting.
Watch the 6-minute court video with Bill Risner: Memory card hacks explained.
We spent 8.5 years on this case. We filmed everything. The truth is undeniable.
Excerpt: While reviewing the Diebold RTA audit log with attorney Bill Risner, we identified another serious issue. The system operator backed up the database after counting Vote-by-Mail ballots, took the database home, opened it in Microsoft Access, and reloaded a new version the following morning—thereby erasing the prior count.
On May 10, 2006, 23:27:38 Crane“previewed cards cast report” which is the correct procedure to verify the total number of ballots counted in all races without disclosing the candidates or race' totals.
The following day, Crane logs into at 9:55:57 AM. Just under a minute later, at 9:56:30 he backs up the system by illegally breaking the chain of custody by overwriting the results from yesterday. With the changes he made at home the night before.
(The system give you a warning)
Then right away at 9:56:49 AM, he illegally printed two election summary reports, 10 minutes apart, to check if changes were correctly implemented.
Again, cards cast report only tells you how many cards were counted. He needed to see the actual results to confirm his work.
We have testimony from trial in 2007 where it was common for Crane to print these reports, take them out of the office and provide them to the election’s director Brad Nelson.
Additionally, election employees testified that they printed such a large number of reports that they eventually obtained a seal to mark them "unofficial".
(Video excerpt court testimony 16 minutes)
According to the Secretary of State's procedures manual, election summary reports cannot be printed until one hour after polls close on election night.
The Diebold optical scanners used at precincts prints a “results tape” showing the votes cast at each precinct at the closing of the polls on election day.
The Diebold scanners' memory cards can be pre-programmed with a device called a "Cropscanner" to produce fraudulent results.
Pima County acquired the machine on July 18, 2005, following an alert issued by the Black Box Voting Organization on July 4, 2005.
“Hacking Democracy,” a 2006 Emmy nominated documentary film broadcast on HBO.
Then we caught then again in 2015
John Brakey on Wake-Up Tucson: Pima County Tried to Rig Another Bond Election - Thursday, October 29, 2015
(Watch: 11-minute video)
This is what cheating with impunity looks like.
John Brakey discussed this incident this morning on the local AM radio show, "Wake Up Tucson".
Several years after the RTA debacle case ended, an employee at the Pima County Elections Division broke into a sealed part of the central tabulator to hook up an ethernet connection.
Elections employee breaking the seal (he's worked there 10 years).
This occurred after the Logic and Accuracy (L&A) Test was completed and a seal was placed prominently on the closed door of the system. This, of course, was hours after I (Brakey) had left the observation room. I drove to my home, spent a couple of hours writing and emailing a number of people about the L&A Test and, by habit, hit the hot link to the election department's live feed. Moments later, I was watching the act take place before me.
2015 Pima County Bond Election Caught in the Act
The following is Brakey's letter to the Secretary of State:
To Michele Reagan Arizona Secretary of State
I am an experienced, well trained election observer for three political committees and at least one or more nonpartisan candidates on the Nov 3 ballot. (On bottom have listed groups)
On the morning of Tuesday, Oct 27, 2015, I observed the logic and accuracy test at Pima County Elections (PCE). After the testing was done (about 11am) I went to my home office to write a report of my observations and concerns in this election.
I turned on the live video feed and had it playing on my Samsung flat screen tv. For several hours as I was writing my report, I saw no activity at PCE. After I finished my report, I emailed at 2:56 pm. At about 3:00 pm, I noticed two men who earlier were part of the L & A test enter the room. At about 3:03 pm, I took the attached picture of an employee of ten years removing a security seal and connecting ethernet cables.
The second person turned on the computer. I could see that he went into a program I had observed earlier that day called ES&S “Election Reporting Manager” (ERM).
At this point I called some friends thinking that this could not be true. Maybe there were party observers out of camera range. After several more minutes passed, PCE Director Brad Nelson entered the room and sat on a chair right next to the man on the computer. Mr. Nelson had to have seen that the door to the computer cage was wide open (as seen in picture above).
No sound came through the video feed, but Brad appeared to say something and then started spinning around in the chair.
After a few more minutes of trying to figure out what to do, I decided to go and see for myself what was going on. I live about five minutes from Pima County Elections. When I got to the public observers’ door, it was locked.
I then noticed that Mr. Nelson was now with several other gentlemen on the Westside corner of PCE. I approached him and asked if I could talk to him. I then asked him if there was anything wrong with the live video feed.
He said no and explained to me quickly how it worked.
I then said, "take a look at this," and I showed him the photograph on my smartphone depicting an individual breaking the seal and unlawfully entering the computer cage that contains the Election Management System’s computers which were previously sealed. I also have a video recording of that incident.
Mr. Nelson acted surprised and said for me to wait for him at the public observers’ door while he figured out what’s going on.
After about 25 minutes, Mr. Nelson informed me that he called the party observers, identified a mistake, and scheduled the L & A test redo for 8:00 AM.
I knew that he was not being honest with me. Mr. Nelson had to have known when he entered the room that protocol was violated. One could not have missed this obvious breach under his supervision and in such close proximity.
I hope that the above information warrants a proper investigation. We are concerned and there are other serious issues that the Secretary of State’s office should investigate with us.
Additionally, I wanted to mention that I deeply appreciate your prompt work last week addressing the issue of verifying elections and hand count audits in Pima County.
Please help us make sure that elections are true and accurate .
Respectfully yours,
John R Brakey, of AUDIT-AZ & Special task force leader for Citizens Oversight for Verifiable Elections. Mission of Citizens Oversight for Verifiable Elections, COVE:
The result: All seven bond measures failed.
Insider Threats and Industry Shortcomings
According to longtime election attorney and friend Bill Risner:
“Every study of the security of computer voting systems has identified insiders—such as company employees, vendors, and election department staff—as the primary security threats. Shockingly, when vendors submit software for certification, they often instruct test labs not to examine it for security flaws.”
Invoice for the Cropscanner for Pima County Elections: http://electiondefensealliance.org/files/crop_scanner_invoice.pdf
I am writing an eBook that will include a complete story accompanied by videos. We filmed and documented everything. It is insightful to review the events from 21 years ago with the experiences and knowledge gained since then.
How We Discovery of a Systemic Backdoor in the Diebold Voting System in 2004
Between 1998 and 2002, I owned a marine parts shop and store in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. We were a beta test site for Mercury Marine, using a Microsoft Access-based point of sale and inventory system with digital microfiche.
Later I discovered that the same Access platform powered the Diebold voting systems used in 12 of Arizona’s 15 counties, including Pima.
It was discovered that databases could be modified without requiring a password, and no evidence of these changes would appear in the audit logs if you open the database in Microsoft Office Access.
I previously demonstrated how an insider or hacker could alter election results on my laptop within a minute.
That same vulnerability showed up in the May 2006 Pima County bond election—a $2 billion, 20-year half-percent sales tax proposal. We uncovered it through public records. I can show you exactly where and how it happened. Link to statement of Facts in the RTA Case http://tinyurl.com/LPFiling
We found one guy, who was programming at one time 12 out of 15 counties in Arizona through phone modems.
In our 2014 court case in Santa Cruz County (Nogales, AZ), it was demonstrated that election manipulation could occur without the operator being physically present in the county.
During the court proceedings, Melinda Meeks, the county clerk and election director of Santa Cruz, was asked who programmed the Diebold system. She incorrectly testified, asserting that she personally programmed the election system.
However, the Diebold Audit Log indicated that if her statement were accurate, she would have had to also be programming systems for other counties, which was not the case
By late 2004, Mr. William Doyle had backdoor access to Arizona’s election infrastructure. By 2014, Santa Cruz County Elections Director Melinda Meeks was actively trying to hide Doyle’s involvement—because they all knew the process was improper.
After we prevailed in our lawsuit, we finally obtained some of the emails we had long requested. I had asked for the records to be sent electronically, but instead they were printed, all mixed up and charred—making it obvious that parts were missing.
What remained was telling.
In many of the emails, Doyle and his wife were referred to as “Mom and Dad” by Meeks—a disturbing indication of how much control they had over the county’s election operations. It became clear that the Doyles were effectively running and certifying elections behind the scenes.
Even the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office would issue directives to Santa Cruz County, instructing Meeks to “tell your programmer” to take specific actions—without ever naming Doyle.
Meeting minutes from various counties confirm the official authorization granted to William E. Doyle, d/b/a, operating under the name Election Operations Services, to provide election programming services across multiple counties. He was initially incorporated and subsequently transitioned to conducting business under a DBA ("Doing Business As").
Doyle had access to phone modem numbers because he programed the Election Management System (EMS) used on election day to transmit precinct results from polling places to the central tabulator EMS. He used these same modems to upload the election database itself—a clear violation of election protocol.
This insecure setup made the system vulnerable to manipulation and laid the groundwork for techniques like Fraction Magic (BlackBox Voting Explains).
Doyle quietly retired. For more background, see:
Redundancy = Resilience
A secure election system isn’t un-hackable—it’s verifiable. The strength lies in redundancy and public oversight. After extensive experience in various states, it is apparent that a straightforward solution involves transparency with verification carried out at the precinct level.
ABE is independent from the Election Management System (EMS), yet enhances speed and accuracy.
It allows:
Election officals and Voter-level verification
Transparent results by precinct
Public confidence built on data—not faith
Precinct-level auditing ensures manipulation doesn’t go unnoticed. When paired with paper ballots, ABE becomes bulletproof.
Hope on the Horizon: Meet ABE
ABE—Auditable Ballot Examination.
It’s a transparent, verifiable, and free system—ABE is a micro that works with Microsoft Excel.
Every ballot cast by a voter generates two public records:
A digital ballot image
A Cast Vote Record (CVR) spreadsheet
With ABE, anyone—voters, candidates, officials—can compare CVRs to the images. I use two screens: one for the CVR, the other for the image. Then I perform a risk-limiting audit, precinct by precinct, with two auditors verifying results.
Yet in some states, these records are destroyed or hidden—denying voters the ability to confirm their vote was counted.
Here’s how it works:
I use two screens: one shows the CVR database, the other shows the ballot image.
I then performed a Risk Limiting type audit proving that the data has not been manipulated. Best done by precinct with two auditors, one reading the ballot the other verifying that it was recorded correctly in the CVR database.
These systems are certified to a standard that ensures there is no more than one error in every 200,000 marks made.
Simple. Clear. Verifiable.
Yet in some states, these records are hidden or illegally destroyed. That’s like having a bank account and being told you can’t check your balance.
Elections must be conducted transparently. A functioning democracy relies not on blind trust but on accountability and openness.
As Abraham Lincoln once said:
“Let them know the truth, and the country is safe.”
Abraham Lincoln warned that America’s downfall would not come from a foreign invader, but from within. In his 1838 address to the Young Men’s Lyceum, he said:
“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.”
Lincoln believed the greatest threat to our Democratic Republic was internal division and a loss of shared truth.
That’s why Election Transparency Matters.
With tools like ABE, we don’t have to choose between election security and no public oversight—we can have both. By verifying our votes, we can rebuild trust in our system and strengthen the foundation of our democracy.
Let’s never forget:
Voting is a secret process. Counting is a public process.
Transparency isn’t just a principle—it’s the verifiable path back to trusting elections.
A Call to Stand Together
~~Redundancy: The Key to a Resilient Election System~~
A truly secure election system is one that is designed to be unbreakable—not because it can’t be hacked, but because it includes multiple layers of verification.
The strength of election integrity lies in redundancy, transparency, and public oversight.
The most effective method of securing elections is not a proprietary machine or a complex algorithm; rather, it is "We the People," equipped with tools such as ABE that provide transparency.
By making election data publicly verifiable, we empower voters and election officials alike to confirm the accuracy of results.
Crowd-sourced election verification, backed by factual redundant evidence, done at the precinct level, ensures that manipulation cannot go unnoticed:
ABE is an independent system that operates separately from the official Election Management System.
ABE empowers election officials by delivering two critical elements that are often difficult to achieve simultaneously: SPEED and ACCURACY.
As election auditors, we recognize that this approach combines the best of both worlds: the efficiency of digital technology with the security and transparency of tangible publicly auditable records.
By leveraging the cast vote record (CVR) database and ballot images—and, when necessary, verifying against the hand-marked paper ballots—we can ensure election integrity through a comprehensive simple transparent process.
Subsequently, release the data publicly by precinct along with an email-accessible CVR Excel database. Ensure these are hyperlinked to the ballot images which are stored in the cloud for convenient access.
Why ABE—or a Program Like It—Matters
In our recent presentation, “Reflections on the 2024 Election: The Path Forward,” Ken Bennett outlined five key reforms designed to restore election transparency using familiar tools like Microsoft Excel.
These reforms enable full ballot-level verification before certification, not weeks or months later.
We emphasized the need for independent post-election checks—not just by election officials, but also by candidates, watchdog groups, and members of the public.
In an age of AI-driven propaganda and disinformation, public verification is more vital than ever.
“In an era where democracy faces unprecedented challenges, every vote must be verifiable, and every citizen must have access to clear, trustworthy election data.”
— Ken Bennett, Chair, AUDIT USA
AUDIT USA’s Transparent Election Solutions
We’ve developed practical tools that counties can implement immediately:
Excel-Based CVR Verification by Precinct – Hyperlinked spreadsheets connect vote data to ballot images in secure cloud storage, enabling public access and review.
User-Friendly Platforms – Easy enough for users with basic Excel experience.
Public Verification Systems – Stakeholders can audit and validate results independently, quickly, and reliably.
No voter should leave the polls uncertain whether their vote counted. Verification must be a right—not a privilege.
Ken Bennett’s Five Principles for Restoring Trust
Lack of Transparency Fuels Misinformation – Limited access allows rumors to grow unchecked.
“Trust Us” Is Not Enough – Confidence must be earned through visible proof.
Candidates and Voters Deserve Access – Denying access invites speculation and chaos.
Election Officials Can not Be the Only Gatekeepers – Transparency bridges the trust gap.
Without Public Access, Elections Become a Battle of Narratives – Truth must be independently verifiable to prevent division.
Watch: Ken Bennett’s 5 Key Steps for Verified Elections
This framework answers the core questions of election integrity:
This approach is affordable, efficient, and enables verification before certification by county by using the digital records.
Addressing Common Concerns
One of the biggest challenges for election departments is balancing speed with accuracy—especially in large counties like Maricopa, which, during major general elections, processes ballots for 2.2 million voters. That translates to 4.4 million individual ballots, last November election had a two-card election. Ballots are counted in batches of 200, and stored 7 batches per box, generating somewhere around 3,000 boxes of ballots.
👉 New brochure On ABE-Auditing Software: https://bit.ly/3DUIg6k
Election night results are unofficial until 7 to 15 days when the canvassing work is done and certified by the Board of Supervisors in Arizona.
ABE can support the election department by detecting anomalies and aiding election officials in generating a comprehensive canvass report, organized by precinct, which can be readily simple verified by the public.
Each ballot is digitally linked to its corresponding Cast Vote Record (CVR) and can be traced back to the original hand-marked paper ballot, which remains securely in custody of the county.
If someone were to alter a ballot image or a CVR, it would be easily identifiable and prosecutable fraud—because both the original paper ballot and the image exist with the county and can be compared. This is why Ken Bennett's point 5 is important.
Final Thought: It Must Be Ballots Over Bullets in 2026
At AUDIT USA, we believe one reason there was no post-election violence in 2024 is that MAGA-aligned candidates won.
But that’s no cause for complacency.
Personally, I don’t trust the results—not out of partisanship, but because of what I’ve seen and learned over two decades of election transparency work.
No voter should wake away from an election wondering if the digital ballot box told the truth with what we know!
On Election Day, November 5, 2024, the Cochise County Elections and Recorder's Office in Bisbee, Arizona, received a bomb threat around 7:00 PM. The building was promptly evacuated, and law enforcement established a perimeter. The Cochise County Sheriff's Office requested assistance from the Department of Defense bomb squad, which conducted thorough internal and external sweeps of the premises. The "all-clear" was issued at approximately 9:25 PM, allowing election workers to safely return and resume operations. https://www.kold.com+2KGUN 9 Tucson News+2Tucson Sentinel+2Tucson Sentinel
This incident was part of a series of coordinated hoax bomb threats targeting election offices across Arizona, including Pima County. While Pima County received similar threats, its election operations continued without evacuation, as law enforcement assessed the threats and found no credible danger. Tucson Sentinel+2Votebeat+2Arizona Mirror+2Votebeat+2Tucson Sentinel+2Arizona Mirror+2
The FBI later indicated that these threats appeared to originate from Russian email domains, aiming to disrupt the electoral process. Tucson Sentinel+4Votebeat+4AP News+4
For more detailed information on the Cochise County incident, you can refer to the Tucson Sentinel's report: Tucson SentinelTucson Sentinel
Helpful Resource
Video: Ken Bennett's 5 Key Steps for Ensuring Verifiable Elections
[Watch at 30:36 mark]
To Learn more, join me at:
John Roberts Brakey is a veteran election transparency advocate based in Tucson, Arizona. He is the co-founder and director of AUDIT Elections USA (Americans United for Democracy, Integrity, and Transparency in Elections), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting public oversight of elections through litigation, advocacy, and education. Brakey's mission centers on ensuring elections are "transparent, trackable, and publicly verified," a phrase that has become synonymous with his work.
Brakey began his activism in 2004 with the founding of AUDIT AZ, which later expanded into AUDIT USA. His focus has been on preserving and utilizing ballot images—digital scans of paper ballots—as a means to audit and verify election results. In 2016, his efforts led to successful litigation in Arizona, compelling counties to retain ballot images. He has continued to advocate for similar transparency measures in other states, including Florida
In 2023, Brakey and AUDIT USA introduced the Auditable Ballot Examination (ABE) system, designed to allow both officials and the public to verify election outcomes through access to anonymized digital ballot images. This initiative received bipartisan support, including backing from Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
Brakey's dedication to election integrity has made him a prominent figure in the field. He continues to travel extensively, collaborating with local groups to promote transparent and verifiable elections across the United States.
—John R Brakey, director audit USA A501C3 nonprofit
Americans United for Democracy, Integrity, and Transparency – Arizona
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Hope, Peace and democracy
John and Marisela Brakey
Chapter #1 AUDIT USA – Understanding the Past to Protect the Future of Elections, Democracy and Our Democratic Republic
Chapter # 1 This eBook will be released in chapters before being compiled into a complete volume. It includes Video and Audio 4/11/25 2PM V1.7Apr 8 • John R Brakey
Chapter 17- Technofeudalism: Are We Living Under Its Rule? Has Big Tech Become the New Monarchs and What Does That Mean for Elections…
Chapter 17. This eBook will be released in chapters before being combined into a single volume. It will feature video and audio evidence, emphasizing…Apr 2 • John R Brakey
Chapter 16 – Democracy on the Brink: Exposing the Unholy Alliance of Money, Power, and Algorithms
The growing influence of billionaire entrepreneurs, exemplified by Elon Musk, poses an increasing threat to the stability of our Democratic Republic. Rev. 5.8.25 John R Brakey Oct 23, 2024
Chapter 11A - What’s the Difference Between a Logic and Accuracy Test & Emissions Test? Not Much! Understanding the Role of Logic and Accuracy…
Mar 27 • John R Brakey
Chapter 13-Public Records Request for Election Data Turns into Unlawful Retaliation — Santa Cruz County AZ May Have Triggered a First Amendment SLAPP Fight
SLAPP-stands for “Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation". By John R. Brakey, Ken Bennett, and Bill Risner -Press Release V1.6 @ 4.23.25 -8:37AM
John R Brakey Apr 15, 2025
