On February 13, Secretary of State Nancy Landry posted an article at The Hayride entitled LANDRY: “The Rest of the Story On Louisiana’s Election Integrity.” The last line read: “Reliable election information comes from elections officials, not uninformed political activists.” Considering the last five years, this statement is not only patronizing but offensive. Because it is those same political activists who have done the real research day after day, since 2020.

Working with national Cyber Data Analysts and election experts on elections nationwide and specifically here in Louisiana, we are the actual opposite of “uninformed.” Knowing the ugly truth regarding our elections is why we advocate for hand-marked, secure, water-marked paper ballots, counted at the precinct level with results delivered Election Night. Our President, Donald Trump, knows. He has repeatedly called for water-marked paper ballots, no machines.

Yet the Secretary of State in Louisiana, contrary to our President’s wishes, will soon issue a Request For Proposal (RFP) for new voting machines/computers as well as electronic poll books!

Because we know more than we ever hoped to know regarding the lack of transparency, security and integrity in our elections, we continue to be frustrated and outraged by our Secretary of State’s roadshow touting Louisiana’s Elections as “Safe and Secure”. There is NO WAY that a state with voting machines can make this statement. Donald Trump knows this.

And no amount of saying that they are “Safe and Secure” actually makes them so.

There are very many reasons why they are not, but for the purpose of this article, I will address the “reliable “ information put forward by our Secretary of State:

SHE STATED:

“Hand-counted paper ballot system…an error rate of anywhere from 8 percent (per a MIT study in New Hampshire) to 42 percent (per a Rice University study utilizing just 120 ballots)” This is totally misleading.

FACT:

MIT study: Second paragraph states: “By this metric, hand-counted paper ballots and optically scanned paper ballots have shown the better overall performance than punch cards, lever machines and electronic voting machines”.

This hand count was not even counting paper ballots. Ironically, in the Rice Study, what was counted were paper receipts, of the kind the Secretary is now proposing!

 

SHE STATED:

“I am committed to implementing a safe and effective system that maintains and improves the integrity of our already stellar elections. It is time for the facts to shine-Louisiana’s elections are secure and our record proves it”. Again, misleading.

FACT:

Louisiana cannot audit elections, so to what record does she refer? Ironically, there is, LITERALLY, NO RECORD!

MIT study, page 2, when discussing the kind of machines that Louisiana now uses:“…electronic voting machines do not retain a separate record of the voters’ intention, so it is impossible, at least with current technology, to compare voters’ intentions with the machine’s recordings.”

 

SHE STATED:

“In the 2023 race for Secretary of State, only 6 percent of voters supported the candidate (in favor of paper ballots)”.

FACT:

Simply stating this does not make it true when it comes to machine results. Let’s recount and see if this is true.

But we cannot. The “stellar” system has NO BALLOTS to recount!

Louisiana is the only state which cannot audit its elections. Super Stellar!

 

SHE STATED:

“The voters know that switching to a hand-counted paper ballot system would result in days or weeks-long wait for returns”.

FACT:

Almost every European country hand counts paper ballots with results delivered election night even in the largest precincts. This is because counting begins the minute the polls open.

Does our SOS think that Louisiana citizens are not able to count as well as their European counterparts?

Much of the United States has already switched to paper ballots.

What is wrong with Louisiana?

 

SHE STATED:

“The next system will have an auditable paper back up, which will give us the ability to perform risk-limiting audits on our election results. This is the primary goal I have as Secretary of State”.

FACT:

A risk-limiting audit is the testing of a small percentage of the system to thereby determine if the entirety is OK. An analogy would be if pilots tested a small percent of the flight systems on their airplane and determined by that test that the entire airplane is A-OK. I cannot imagine that anyone would fly on that airplane.

Why don’t we get a system that does not need to have risk-limiting audits to make the voters “feel” like the election was secure and had integrity? We deserve to have a voting system that IS secure and has integrity and is fully auditable!

 

SHE STATED:

Yesterday in a Finance Committee Hearing, the Secretary stated that 70% of Louisianians think our elections are secure!

FACT:

There is no source, that we know of, that gives this statistic. If there was a poll, Madame Secretary, when and where was it conducted and who paid for it? Even if true, it means that 30% do not think our elections are secure, which is over 1.2 million people. And that is more than voted in the last election. Could this be a factor in why they are not voting?

There is, however, a very reputable poll, Rasmussen, which was conducted in February, whereby 60% of the nation favors paper ballots!

And a 2021 Pew Research Center Survey found that 73% of Republicans prefer in-person paper ballots to electronic voting!

FACT: The LAGOP Convention two years ago was all about Election Integrity and had a record attendance because of Louisiana citizens’ concern regarding our elections. Sadly, nothing about our elections has changed since then.

FACT: The Louisiana Republican State Central Committee (RSCC) voted in favor of a paper ballot resolution in January. So, the governing body of the LAGOP aligns with Donald Trump, Elon Musk, the RNC, Tucker Carlson and countless others.

Why doesn’t Nancy Landry?

Perhaps the most egregious insecurity in our elections is the black box upon which Louisianans cast their votes. These black boxes contain within proprietary software. No one, besides the company that made it, is allowed to look at the software inside that black box. “Safe and Secure”? Yes, if you are a cheater. The cheating entities may cheat safely and securely inside a voting computer without anyone knowing that they have done so. The new black boxes the Secretary wants will be more of the same, just newer.

The Secretary says that her office audits our elections. How? They look at the print out from the machines and it gives them the number of people who voted. Not their intent. There is no way to know when you vote on that black box if your vote counted for the person that you voted for or if it even counted at all. The paper accounting, printed out by the machine of how many people voted, is in no way an audit. It is not possible to count our actual votes.

This is in breach of the Louisiana Constitution, which, in article 11 section 2 states,  “ballots shall be counted publicly”. What ballots? The tiny percentage of mail-in ballots are the only ballots we have. Which means that if a candidate would like a recount of their election, there is no way to have one. A few candidates have recently learned this, much to their disbelief and dismay.  As heretofore stated , Louisiana is the ONLY state in the nation that cannot audit our elections. Not only can we not audit, but our Cast Vote Records, which belong to the citizens of Louisiana, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain (price set by the SOS’ outside counsel) making them impossible for the average citizen or candidate to buy. Why is that the case?

By contrast, the Cast Vote Records in Nancy Pelosi’s District in San Francisco, are posted online, election night, for all to see, for FREE.

What about other election integrity measures? Recently, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor has said that the SOS office is in the process of implementing the election integrity recommendations from 2021. It is now 2025 and they have not completed the process?

Our voter rolls STILL have more than 600,000 ineligible voters on them- what is the hold-up? And why was proof-of-citizenship to vote (voted in to law last legislative session) not enacted (per the SOS’ request) BEFORE the 2024 Election, arguably the most important of our lives?

We have had THREE elections since then, with still no implementation!

In Donald Trump’s first term in office, he issued Executive Order “EO 13873”, and on February 4, 2025 it went into effect.

The order declares “A national emergency due to the risks of foreign adversaries exploiting ICT (Information and Communications Technology) vulnerabilities, which could lead to sabotage, subversion, or compromise of sensitive information. It tasks the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with other agencies, with identifying and prohibiting certain transactions involving ICT and services designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by entities owned by, controlled by, or subject to foreign adversaries, if they pose an unacceptable risk to national security or the economy.” Since Elections have been declared Critical Infrastructure, they fall under this EO and the parts produced by foreign adversaries contained within voting machines would, more-than-likely, be unlawful.

LA.DOGE:  What happens if we purchase hundreds of millions of dollars worth of voting machines only to have them declared illegal soon thereafter?

The people of Louisiana understand that without free and fair elections, no other issue matters. It is our basic civil right, one which cannot be declared “safe and secure” when it is anything but. We do not want any more machines/computers for elections. New voting computers would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase and more millions per year for storage/service. Paper ballots are LESS EXPENSIVE and MORE SECURE.

DONALD TRUMP KNOWS THIS.

The obvious question for Louisiana is: “Why doesn’t Nancy Landry?”

 

Christy Haik
RSCC  Committeewoman 16A
RPEC  Committeewoman 7

President, Louisiana Republican Assembly