By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
LITTLE VALLEY — A Randolph man has filed a complaint in federal court seeking data from the Cattaraugus County Board of Elections on the November 2022 election.
Randy Barber, a self-appointed election auditor, spoke to members of the Cattaraugus County Legislature’s County Operations and Public Safety Committee Wednesday to explain his concerns over the county’s electronic voting system.
Barber filed a Freedom of Information (FOIL) request for copies of the county’s cast vote record in October, but was denied by County Clerk Darrell Klute. County Administrator Jack Searles denied a subsequent appeal of the decision. Barber is seeking a declaratory judgement against the county to force it to provide the cast vote data.
Barber said that Election Commissioners Kevin Burleson and Cortney Spittler were working with him to answer his questions, but state Election Law recognizes the commissioners’ certification of the vote as the cast vote report.
That is in conflict with federal law, Barber maintained. “The state law is in error.”
Barber, who also challenged the Board of Elections to produce the 2020 cast vote, told the committee “I would like to express our ongoing desire to work with our elected representatives in a non adversarial manner. Many of you know I’ve been around for a while, been working on these things and trying to work with people for a long time.”
Barber said he is a member of some state and national groups, but that he is seeking to audit the 2022 Cattaraugus County vote on his own. Two of the groups are New York Citizens Audit and United Sovereign Americans.
He told the Olean Star later that he and other election auditors “will ask for the cast vote records for 2024 at some point.”
Burleson, the Cattaraugus County Democratic Election Commissioner, said Thursday the data Barber and other election auditors are seeking from election officials across the state could tie ballots to specific voters based on date and time stamps. This could compromise the secret ballot and make people suspicious, he added.
Burleson said he does not believe the county’s Dominion
voting equipment and software is capable of producing the actual cast vote record.
“The voting system is highly trustworthy,” Burleson said. “We explained it to him (Barber). We met with him for about 2 ½ hours one day.”
The county’s voting machines are not connected to the internet. They are programmed by state board certified technicians, Burtleson said. “Everything is double checked.”
Burleson said in New York state, a randomly drawn amount of ballots “are audited by the Board of Elections staff before an election. We use other software to verify the results. Our results are 100% spot on. The public needs to be able to trust the results of bi-partisan Board of Elections from across the state.”
Burleson said the number of FOILs the Board of Elections received has grown in the past few years. “The state Board of Elections has given us guidance” in replying to the requests.
