Maui Election Integrity Concerns
Testimony, 5/14/2024
Paul Deslariers Resident: Kihei, Maui Phone: 808-264-3536
Aloha State Election Commissioners
My civic engagement includes being a Maui County Charter Commissioner, and director of a political action committee, the Maui Pono Network. I was also an election observer for the primary and general election for 2022 and used my 24-year experience as a systems engineer consultant. My comments are on the primary areas of vulnerability which are focused on the hired contractor and state process and a simple solution:

I Hundreds of free-floating thumb drives are used to record the data from each voting machine at the polls and transfers the data on these drives directly to the computer run by the contractor.
· Thumb Drives can be lost or misplaced.
· Any digital device can be hacked. Even encrypted drives.
· These thumb drives are used to upload votes into the computer.
They do not use the paper ballots that are printed at the polls, that are
safely removed and stored.

II Having worked with election integrity computer experts I can assure you that any digital device can be hacked. This opens questions regarding outside contractor counters.
· Despite calibration and testing prior to the count, the testing during
the run and selected brief hand count, vulnerability can occur even
remotely.
· The secured paper ballots are kept by the county, yet we rely on a
contractor and the state to give us the result.
· Basically, the counties give control of their elections to a contractor
and the state.

III The elections data in the hands of the contractor is transferred electronically by the contractor from Maui to Oahu where their tabulators come up with the elections results. Only after the state goes through our elections results do the voters receive it. There are several checks, yet vulnerability exists.
· Transfer of the data electronically is susceptible, despite the claims
by the contractor.
· The state tabulators can be hacked remotely. I have seen it done for
Alaska.
· The county has all the paper ballots, yet we rely on a system with
many potential vulnerabilities.

IV The solution is simple at hardly no cost or any additional staff.
· The county holds the paper ballots for 22 month, this data is not
impacted by the contractors or state digital exchanges.
· Maui county election crews are well-trained, experienced and they
run a tight ship. They check and organize the paper ballots and assure
each ballot is considered.
· All the paper ballots are assembled in the Maui County Chambers
and there is plenty of room for two county owned counters.
· There is a lot of down time between counting runs and a crew of two
can do an independent county run. These counters run about $35,000 each
and can be purchased directly from the manufacturer.

A simple solution is empowering a county to run a check on all the data
moving around in digital form. It provides much greater voter confidence. It
does not affect communication or voting results broadcasts as it will still
come from the state. Those in the county chambers do not have phones so
the county check will be only that and will not broadcast election results.
There is no disruption to the overall process, requires no additional staff,
and it would help resolve 12 areas of vulnerability and concern.
Mahalo for your consideration