Tuesday, April 4, 2023 our county clerk actually listened to her constituents and was open enough to let us try to fix some issues. Osage County put away their ballot counting machines and used the Return to Hand Countingprocess. Several people were involved, from the County Clerk to the County office staff, several election judges and even citizens that just took the time to learn the system before judging it’s worth.
Why did we do this process? Osage County, as well as several other counties in Missouri, need to buy new machines for elections. A nearby County paid over $400,000 dollars to replace the machines they were using.
Where is that money going to come from? This hand counting process is much cheaper and the money we do spend is kept in our community. This hand counting process has several checks and double checks. Could someone cheat? As with any process, someone could find a way, although it would be very difficult and they
would only be able to flip a few votes vs. tens of thousands a machine is able to do with the click of a button.
Machines do not have to be connected to the internet to be hacked. This hand counting process can be done in one day and is very transparent.
We have a choice. We can sit on the couch and pay more taxes for the government to take care of us or, we can come together and work as a community. The choice is ours!
Gina Kroeger
Linn
