Montgomery County Commissioners Court Votes to Reject Election Software Upgrade
September 21, 2024 | Montgomery County, TX
Members of the Montgomery County Republican Party County Executive Committee (CEC) and several election integrity advocates attended the September 10th meeting of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court to voice their concerns about the integrity of the upcoming November election. At issue was the newest software update to the Hart InterCivic voting systems used in Montgomery County elections.
The Election Integrity advocates brought to light that there is evidence of “25 current, critical” security vulnerabilities in the new software (Hart Verity 2.7) that was slated to be approved by the court that day in preparation for the November election.
The group brought forth several issues:
Lauren Vickers raised concerns about ballot secrecy being compromised through the use of the QR code, potentially allowing individuals’ votes to be accessed by third parties or the government.
Cathie Locetta, Precinct 48 Chair, stated that the Hart Verity’s security has been improperly verified using former, past standards, which goes against Texas Election Code and national security standards.
Kristen Plaisance, Precinct 37 Chair, stated that the Hart Verity system has the ability for operators to manually record votes, adding them directly to a database, with no oversight. After Plaisance lawfully requested access to the database to check for irregularities, the county did not release it, despite the Attorney General directing the county to do so, denying the people the ability to audit elections, which is lawful in the Texas Constitution.
Steve Lawrence, Precinct 71 Chair, spoke of the system’s security vulnerabilities and requested the court to reject Election Administrator Suzie Harvey’s motion to approve the software upgrade for use, which had already been uploaded onto the systems. This request was echoed by several testifying that day, with others enumerating the 25 vulnerabilities in the system.
The County Commissioners and County Judge Mark Keough expressed great concern after hearing the testimonies. Commissioner James Noack articulated that he believed irregularities occurred in the last primary, and stated he is against approving the system upgrade.
Commissioner Robert Walker stated this was the first time he had heard of the Attorney General directing the county to release the database. He seemed concerned about the issues with the system, but he did not think the issue could be corrected before the election. Commissioner Matt Gray expressed his concerns given the previous 4 am jump in election returns in the 2020 Presidential Election, and he stated opposition to the software upgrade.
Speaking to Plaisance’s grievances, County Attorney BD Griffin addressed the database, saying Hart InterCivic sued Montgomery County regarding release of the database, and is subject to injunction, therefore preventing release.
The court brought up Montgomery County Election Administrator Suzie Harvey to question her regarding her knowledge of the system and its possible vulnerabilities. Harvey said she was not familiar with the allegations stated that day, having no personal knowledge of the vulnerabilities. Judge Keough asked if the county was required to use the new system, and if we could operate under the previous one, which she affirmed was possible. Harvey stated it would take three weeks to revert to the previous version, and that the county would have to issue the military and overseas ballots manually. She also stated that there is no identifiable information in the QR code. After the discussion, Judge Keough motioned to keep the previous version, which was unanimously approved by the court.
County Election Commission Meeting
As a result of the concerns brought by the Election Integrity team, the County Election Commission has since called a meeting at Commissioners Court on September 23 to bring forth administrator Harvey to delve more into the security of the election. The meeting is open to the public and is an opportunity to show your support for election integrity and, if you are so led, to share your views on this important topic.