Several electoral battlegrounds are relying on livestream video technology to give voters a window into how their ballots are collected and counted. But attempts to provide greater transparency with the technology have furthered confusion for voters in various jurisdictions nationwide.
The technology being used at ballot processing centers varies greatly within counties and cities, but also within the ballot processing centers themselves. In Arizona, the Maricopa County Elections Department is using Google’s Nest to live-stream some of its voting systems.
The Google technology is broadcasting the signature verification rooms and early ballot processing rooms, but not the ballot tabulation center where votes are counted. Maricopa County has attracted attention nationwide for its potential to provide a determinative effect upon the presidential election in Arizona.
“We don’t allow internet in the tabulation center, so the cameras in there are on an internal video feed,” said Megan Gilbertson, Maricopa County Elections Department spokesperson, in an email.
Many other cities and localities are using YouTube, which is owned by Google, to broadcast their systems, including in major urban areas such as Denver and Los Angeles. Some election officials have pointed to the existence of the live-stream broadcasts as evidence of election integrity.
When pressed by reporters about who was monitoring the ballot-counting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday, Philadelphia City Commissioners chair Lisa Deeley said the city’s livestream that is available on YouTube made it possible for everyone to do so.
“Everybody’s monitoring, we have a livestream. Anybody can watch,” Ms. Deeley said.
But tweets with video clips of livestreams purporting to show snippets of ballot counters engaged in suspicious or allegedly fraudulent behavior have been removed from Twitter.
Twitter has not responded to requests about why it removed content including various video clips, including one tweet claiming a woman was committing voter fraud in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer said on Twitter that his party’s lawyers had asked the Fulton County Board of Elections to investigate a video posted on Twitter that appeared to show a poll worker in Atlanta who gets frustrated while working. Fulton County includes parts of Atlanta.
Twitter restricted the visibility of Mr. Shafer’s tweet that said GOP lawyers were asking election officials to investigate the video. Twitter placed a tag on the tweet that said, “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
“Twitter is wrongfully suppressing this tweet. It is neither “disputed” nor “misleading,”” Mr. Shafer tweeted on Thursday. “Our lawyers made this demand today!”
Fulton County has not responded to The Washington Times’ requests for comment.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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