Where the Cyber Ninjas tried to prove Donald Trump make headway the 2020 election andimmediately faceplanted , a crowdsourced exploit name Polaris Recount is bravely institutionalize onward . Unsurprisingly , yield thecomplete and total deficiency of evidencethat such fraud actually hap during the airstream , history is repeating itself .
According to Vice , diehard Trump supporters are still offer to comb through ballots for Polaris , continuing their endless seeking to demonstrate that such sinister things as daub on ballots or sloppy digitisation are substantiation of widespread popular elector fraud . With Polaris , amateur voting fraudulence detectives can offer to comb through digitized vote images for sign of election irregularity . The organization come complete with leaderboards tracking how many ballots each “ citizen adjudicator ” has reviewed .
Jeff O’Donnell , a Florida businessman who lay out up Polaris in November 2021 , told Vice the system has 1,000 unpaid worker so far , with the all - time leader clocking in at over 3,400 vote : “ The mass who start doing it , they become rabid , they become addicted . ” He added that Polaris is now a full - time project for him . While O’Donnell claims to be non - partisan and that his program is open to anyone , an earlier variation of the prompt displayed to newly cross-file Polaris drug user inquire them to licence they believe there was a “ high probability ” of fraud in the 2020 general election . It conk out on to ask them to agree “ that numerous race , including the Presidential race , are likely to have been wrongly certified . ”
A screenshot of the Polaris Recount website.Screenshot: Polaris Recount
O’Donnell has appearedon a live streamwith MyPillow founderMike Lindellto further pro - Trump election role player fraudulence . According to Vice , another person involved with the Polaris project is Draza Smith , a ego - declare fraud expert who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory , as well as anti - Semitic claptrap about the loaded Rothschild familyon Instagram .
In this sense , they ’re following the spirit of the Cyber Ninjas , thenow - defunct political firmwith a conspiratorial bent thatbecame the laughingstockof a Republican - chair “ audit ” of Joe Biden ’s victory in Maricopa County , Arizona . ( For one , both efforts involvedQAnon aficionados . ) But because they do n’t have strong-arm access to the ballots in doubtfulness , Polaris drug user ca n’t replicateclassic Cyber Ninja techniqueslike using microscopes to search for traces of nefarious Taiwanese bamboo or exposing them to ultraviolet illumination luminosity in search of fanciful watermark . So they appear to be grasp at even thinner chaff than their forefather .
For example , Vice reported that O’Donnell adjudge that corpses might have voted in Wisconsin last class , tell commonwealth lawgiver , “ The thing that catch the eye is that there are nine [ voters ] that have been registered for more than 120 years , and 119,283 that have been registered between 110 and 119 year . ” While the claim was blow by Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington , consort tothe Washington Post , the accuracy is far more hackneyed . Wisconsin officials have already explained that when they created a statewide voter adjustment system , around 120,000records from around the res publica did n’t take date of nascence or enrollment . So by nonpayment , those records were allot parentage dates of Jan. 1 , 1900 , and a elector enrolment engagement of Jan. 1 , 1918 . Just 3,700 of those nonremittal records were still active .
The ballots that show up in Polaris , O’Donnell say Vice , are sent in by like - minded individuals . According to a guideposted to the Polaris website , upon the submission of a batch of ballot images , an administrator is assigned to “ manage all expression of the digital recount . ” At least two Polaris users review each vote and evaluate it as either legitimate or irregular , with a third commentator serving as a tiebreaker if they discord . It ’s ill-defined how O’Donnell verifies these clutch of ballots are real and unmodified , though the usher remark Freedom of Information Act and public records requests in states which let members of the public to request ballot epitome . The guide last on to propose reach the “ County Sherriff ” [ sic ] if officials are uncooperative .
“ When the Polaris system becomes widely air , interested citizens will be able to indicate their willingness to help with your county via an in - site messaging capability , ” the guide posit . “ You will hopefully get many voluntary in this fashion . ”
While the Polaris Recount website claims that the county themselves are seek auditor and characterizes its signup system as a notice to county administrator , we registered an account and immediately received a check email from an account identifying itself as “ Lone Raccoon . ” The training video recording for fresh users is just three minutes and thirty sec , enjoin the inexpert adjudicator to alert Polaris to such irregularity as voter choosing multiple candidates , ink smears , tears , fold lines , or slight tilts in the scan . The telecasting congratulates volunteers for “ their willingness to not only repair the 2020 election , but to secure fair elections in the future , ” and ends by displaying a computer graphic of a raccoon with the caption “ I am the lone racoon of the Book of Revelation here to waste the deep nation rubbish ” .
David Stafford , a Republican election official in Escambia County , Florida , tell Vice that at best Polaris is replicating the kind of third - political party software that is wide used to independently audit scan ballots . In Florida , Stafford said , the final comparison is done during a “ canvassing board confluence open to the populace ” which is also “ governed by Florida statute and administrative rule . ” Obviously , this works well when it ’s random partizan doing the work . Or not : O’Donnell told Vice that “ four or five ” Polaris volunteers have already been banned , in at least two case for deliberately submitting false reviews of voting .
O’Donnell said that Polaris voluntary have nail the limited review of the 2020 vote in Harding County , New Mexico . In areport on the Polaris website , Polaris claimed to have found that six out of 504 ballots were erroneously counted for Trump or Biden ( three each ) . The report boldly asseverate confidence this could have in mind “ C or even K of falsified votes could exist in larger county , ” or that election fraudsters could have tallied up “ whole blank vote . ”
“ They are earnestly oversimplify voting enumeration , recounting , and auditing , and not taking any nuance to the process into circumstance , ” election adviser Michelle Shafer , who antecedently worked as a representative for balloting machine house Hart Intercivic , told Vice . “ I do n’t see where they could have any actual legitimacy ; it ’s just more noise . States and local legal power have Torah and procedure that apply to recount and audited account and how they are conducted . ”
“ … These individual who do not come along to have any background in election administration are badly oversimplify this huge effort , ” Shafer tot up .
Polaris evidently is n’t going to exchange who ’s prexy , but its very cosmos highlights the continued revanchism of hardcore Republicans who regard any vote not cast for Trump as inherently leery . More distressful are travail by the far - right flank of the GOP to place friend inkey electoral oversight rolesacross the county , ranging from Tennessean poll - watching office , canvass plug-in , and paid precinct judges to elect county clerks and attorney oecumenical . Trump ’s BS claims of voter imposter did n’t work in large part because state and local election officialsresisted atmospheric pressure to interveneon his behalf . It look an fearsome lot like his supporters are hoping that by flip those role to Trump loyalist , the future eq of the Cyber Ninjas and Polaris adjudicators will be in a position to cast doubt on ballots before they ’re endorse .
Gizmodo contacted Polaris via the support electronic mail listed on its website for comment . We did n’t receive a reaction , we ’ll update this post when we hear back .
Donald TrumpGovernmentJeffJoe BidenMike Lindell
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