Heather Maahs, a Chilliwack School Board trustee since 2008 says she has less confidence in the current school board election process than any before. She believes the expanded use of mail-in ballots is no longer justified..“I sent them an email [at city council]. And I said, I understand you're considering mail-ins. And I don't I can't think of any justification for it because there's no lockdown, and everybody's relatively healthy. This is now going to call the elections into question,” Maahs told Western Standard in an interview ahead of Saturday's election..Early returns did not restore Maahs’ confidence as she saw mail-in ballots being processed by Dominion voting machines on October 13..“People had photocopied ballots and the machine wouldn’t take them. However, this doesn’t give me confidence in the machines, but it tells me that people are trying to cheat,” Maahs said..“It was a regular sized paper instead of the king sheets and it didn’t [appear] to have the same texture.”.The attempt did not surprise Maahs..“Somebody sent me a screenshot of a closed private group where all the progressives live and they’re calling me a big bully. They’re talking about the election saying, we could get 13,000 people to vote for every progressive candidate, remove all the toxicity — we're the toxic ones. This guy says, ‘If your kids have fake IDs, and can vote October 15, I'm all for it.’”.Mail-ins aren’t Maahs’ only concern..“They also have a whole new voting thing where anybody can vote anywhere and they don’t have a voters list [for outside jurisdictions]... So you can just go in, give your name, show two pieces of ID you sign your name. I can’t believe they’re making it easy for people to cheat.”.A phone inquiry to the City of Chilliwack confirmed that mail-in ballots and Dominion Voting Machines were in use. However, a phone call to Corporate Officer Jacqueline Morgan went to voicemail..Western Standard also called the City of Abbotsford. There “Marlene” from legislative services confirmed they also use Dominion Voting Machines and mail-in ballots..“They have to be on the voters list. When they applied online, they had to copy pictures of their ID. So all that had to be checked before they would be eligible to get their package,” Marlene explained..“They could even drop them off on election day…but they have to be in the hands of the chief election officer by when the polls close at eight o'clock at night on Saturday. They could drop them off at any of the voting locations or at the main city hall here. A lot of people are just coming by in the daytime and just dropping them off.”.“We don't get too many on voting day, but some people had great intentions of getting it in the mail or whatever, and they end up not leaving town. Or, they have the opportunity still, but they don't have to -- like that's just a last minute. We are getting some in the mail and plus we're getting some this dropped off all through the last few weeks,” she said..“If they don't return them, they still actually would have the right to vote [at the ballot box] on voting day if they've taken one and they don't end up using it. But then they'll be crossed off. They couldn't vote twice.”.The use of Dominion machine in the States revealed nine software vulnerabilities identified in a U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency report..“Our scrutineers are just allowed to sit on the chair in the corner. They can only talk to the presiding election official, and they can't just walk around and look behind any of the workers. They only can observe from a distance and then at the very end of the night, they tape the totals on the wall of the of all that runs through the machine, this person got this many votes. [Workers] tape it [the vote counts] to the wall. The scrutineers can go over there and take a look. And then they can go on their merry way.”.The employee said that Vancouver and many places in the lower mainland were using a similar process. Mail-in ballots are set to grow while the pandemic fades.
Heather Maahs, a Chilliwack School Board trustee since 2008 says she has less confidence in the current school board election process than any before. She believes the expanded use of mail-in ballots is no longer justified..“I sent them an email [at city council]. And I said, I understand you're considering mail-ins. And I don't I can't think of any justification for it because there's no lockdown, and everybody's relatively healthy. This is now going to call the elections into question,” Maahs told Western Standard in an interview ahead of Saturday's election..Early returns did not restore Maahs’ confidence as she saw mail-in ballots being processed by Dominion voting machines on October 13..“People had photocopied ballots and the machine wouldn’t take them. However, this doesn’t give me confidence in the machines, but it tells me that people are trying to cheat,” Maahs said..“It was a regular sized paper instead of the king sheets and it didn’t [appear] to have the same texture.”.The attempt did not surprise Maahs..“Somebody sent me a screenshot of a closed private group where all the progressives live and they’re calling me a big bully. They’re talking about the election saying, we could get 13,000 people to vote for every progressive candidate, remove all the toxicity — we're the toxic ones. This guy says, ‘If your kids have fake IDs, and can vote October 15, I'm all for it.’”.Mail-ins aren’t Maahs’ only concern..“They also have a whole new voting thing where anybody can vote anywhere and they don’t have a voters list [for outside jurisdictions]... So you can just go in, give your name, show two pieces of ID you sign your name. I can’t believe they’re making it easy for people to cheat.”.A phone inquiry to the City of Chilliwack confirmed that mail-in ballots and Dominion Voting Machines were in use. However, a phone call to Corporate Officer Jacqueline Morgan went to voicemail..Western Standard also called the City of Abbotsford. There “Marlene” from legislative services confirmed they also use Dominion Voting Machines and mail-in ballots..“They have to be on the voters list. When they applied online, they had to copy pictures of their ID. So all that had to be checked before they would be eligible to get their package,” Marlene explained..“They could even drop them off on election day…but they have to be in the hands of the chief election officer by when the polls close at eight o'clock at night on Saturday. They could drop them off at any of the voting locations or at the main city hall here. A lot of people are just coming by in the daytime and just dropping them off.”.“We don't get too many on voting day, but some people had great intentions of getting it in the mail or whatever, and they end up not leaving town. Or, they have the opportunity still, but they don't have to -- like that's just a last minute. We are getting some in the mail and plus we're getting some this dropped off all through the last few weeks,” she said..“If they don't return them, they still actually would have the right to vote [at the ballot box] on voting day if they've taken one and they don't end up using it. But then they'll be crossed off. They couldn't vote twice.”.The use of Dominion machine in the States revealed nine software vulnerabilities identified in a U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency report..“Our scrutineers are just allowed to sit on the chair in the corner. They can only talk to the presiding election official, and they can't just walk around and look behind any of the workers. They only can observe from a distance and then at the very end of the night, they tape the totals on the wall of the of all that runs through the machine, this person got this many votes. [Workers] tape it [the vote counts] to the wall. The scrutineers can go over there and take a look. And then they can go on their merry way.”.The employee said that Vancouver and many places in the lower mainland were using a similar process. Mail-in ballots are set to grow while the pandemic fades.
