Wayne Bena thinks you're an idiot? Is he right??

a letter

Subject: Wayne Bena thinks you're an idiot? Is he right??

Dear Executive Branch Members, Legislators, County Officials, UniParty Members and Friends—

Deputy Secretary of State Wayne Bena appeared before the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners back in July to gaslight voters and local officials with his own unprofessional brand of NASED propaganda and disinformation.

Local officials (save one), not seeing through his lies, swallowed them hook, line and sinker. 

See for yourself here. The video is three hours long, but Bena's part is less than an hour. 

It's time for clear thinking. It's time to set the record straight. The purpose of this letter is to expose Bena's nonsense. 

Here we go. Hang on. It’s very important to take the time to read through this.

First an introduction.
In our constitutional republic, government is supposed to be "of the people, by the people, for the people."
We fought one revolutionary war and one civil war over that principle. Do we really need to do it again?
I hope not, but our founders made sure we could, if we needed to.
Jefferson wasn't shy about watering the tree of Liberty if and when it suffers from anemia.
The purpose of elections is to peacefully remove corrupt government. (Captain Seth Keshel)
But how do we do that when our elections are in the hands of a corrupt government, as they are now??

Elections belong to the People of our counties (not to state government, not to ES&S and certainly not to Bena or Evnen).
The purpose of counties and county-based elections is to decentralize power and enable local self-government through locally-owned elections.
Counties (and subdivisions thereof) are the only places we conduct elections in this state.

State law says "the cost of preparing for and conducting elections shall be a county expense." NRS 32-1201.
Responsibility for payment of elections rests with each county.
County payment of county elections infers county ownership of those elections.
But that ownership has been hijacked by our SoS office, through hoodwinking, threats and bribes (here's a free machine that will make your life easier). 

County election officials exist to administrate "fair and open elections free from outside influence" on behalf of the People of the county.
Anything but "fair" (i.e., just and honest) elections constitutes a crime, not to mention taxation without true representation, and we all know where that kind of tyranny leads.

Right now, Wayne Bena and our SoS represent a threat to the People's elective franchise, a tyrannical "outside influence" in our county elections. Both must be removed.

Consider:
We know where Secretary Evnen stands—firmly behind Bena.
Evnen just gave him a 7% taxpayer-funded raise in July, bringing his annual taxpayer-funded salary to $125,475. (Nevermind the taxpayer-funded gravy state benefits.)
Bena obviously has a huge conflict of interest (he wants to protect his gravy job), which is why he has hijacked our county elections.
He will do whatever it takes to keep his gravy job, including forcing our counties to continue conducting elections with secret software.

We need counties to stand up to this tyranny. Any county election office willing to do so will have the support of People across the state.

Moving on to exposing Bena's disinformation and gaslighting.
Note 1: gaslighting is the action of lying in order to manipulate. It amounts to psychological warfare.
Note 2: Hyperlinked time stamps are provided.

At 6:48 in the Board of Commissioners meeting video, Bena claims no election laws were changed going into the November 2020 election. He claims they ran the election "straight up." Bena is lying.
The facts:
Evnen and Ricketts both signed an Executive Order on April 7th of 2020 that, for all intents and purposes, changed election law. That EO opened the door wide to both mass mail-in registrations and mass no-chain-of-custody mail-in voting.
You can find the EO here: http://govdocs.nebraska.gov/docs/pilot/pubs/eofiles/20-16.pdf
Ricketts also signed LB1055 into law on August 07 of 2020. This "law" called for the use of more unmanned and unmonitored (unsecured), no-chain-of-custody ballot drop-boxes.
You can find LB1055 here: https://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_bill.php?DocumentID=41372

At 7:08 Bena claims that, in 2016, foreign actors tried to get into our elections systems but "weren't very successful." He goes on to say that we have a very DEcentralized election system across the country and "foreign actors would not necessarily use ways to hack into our system..."
The facts:
Bena's claim that our election systems across the country are decentralized is another lie.
There are less than a handful of companies (3?) selling computerized election equipment across the country, and they all share a common (centralized) ancestry. That means they share the same software.

With respect to Nebraska's county elections (which is our primary concern), one private company controls all of them, including our voter rolls, our ballot printing, our secret tabulations, and our secret machine hardware. That secret, private (foreign owned?) company is Election Systems and Software (ES&S).

In other words, as there is only one company running our elections, it only takes one bad actor on the inside to rig elections for the entire state of NE. 

Bena's claim that foreign actors aren't necessarily looking for ways to hack into our election systems is pure gaslighting. He was given a first class education about election machine vulnerabilities and their hackability by the very best of experts in the field in a private evening meeting on March 1st of 2022.  I know. I was there. Ret AF Colonel and cyber security expert Shawn Smith educated him and about a dozen others, including a half dozen conservative senators and one arrogant legislative committee attorney, about the fact that it is literally impossible to secure computerized voting machines from hackers. Shawn got strong pushback, especially from the arrogant lawyer. But he calmly and easily shot down every objection until there were no objections left. One senator asked Bena, after Shawn finished, if we had to continue using the machines, and Bena said no. But ever since then, he has been lying to county officials (and citizens) and telling them they must use them, or else.

The idea that bad actors aren't interested in hacking our election systems and haven't actually been doing so, is preposterous. There's way too much at stake, namely billions/trillions of dollars, war/peace, etc.

At 7:35 Bena says the real problem is the use of social media to spread misinformation and doubt about his election results. He complains that this misinformation and doubt have "poisoned the well" on the integrity of his so-called elections.
The facts:
Let's start with the obvious. Bena is the one in control here. He could stop the so-called misinformation and doubt overnight if he wanted to, by simply being transparent in his administration of our elections. His complaining is complete nonsense (and gaslighting). He is the one responsible for creating doubt and poisoning the well. It is his privatized, secret-software vote-counts that have caused People to doubt the veracity of our election results.

Bena talks like voters have an obligation to trust him, which is utter nonsense and just more gaslighting. Voters have no obligation to trust him whatsoever. The idea is absurd on its face.
We not only have no obligation to trust him, we have every right to distrust him, given the way he conducts our elections in secret.
Only a con man would expect trust in this situation. 
And only an idiot would give it to him.

Quoting the inscription over the main entrance of our state Capitol: "The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen," not trust.
—Quoting Thomas Jefferson: "...in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution." 

At 8:30 Bena attempts to sell his snake oil “audits.” Bena touts his post-election mandatory manual audits as some kind of proof of vote-count integrity. 
The facts:
Bena is preying on people's ignorance. His so-called post election audits aren't proof of anything except more gaslighting. The reason is obvious. A partial audit doesn't constitute an audit when we're talking about computerized and secretly programmed vote counts where the machine can be programmed to skip over certain precincts in what is otherwise a rigged election.
A real audit requires that ALL precincts be manually counted, and done so by an independent and transparent third party, where the election official has no access to the ballots between the machine count and the independent third party manual count.
This is third grade logic. And Bena knows it. But he thinks you're an idiot who can't see through his charade.
After the 2020 general election, two Lancaster County precincts were selected for a "mandatory manual audit." Between these two precincts, 1251 ballots were counted by the machines. But the "mandatory manual audit" only counted 635 ballots. In other words, 616 ballots went unaccounted for. But you would never know this by only looking at the mandatory manual audit report.
 When these facts were brought to the attention of election officials, they had no response. None. I’ve actually brought it to their attention several times.
Bena isn't fooling anyone who isn't already fooled.

At 11:12 Bena tries selling more snake oil. He touts running test decks through the tabulators and conducting mock elections with them as evidence of election day tabulation integrity. 
The facts:
Again, a computerized and secretly programmed tabulator can be programmed to kick in the manipulation at a certain time. Text decks and mock elections are simply no proof whatsoever that the machine will count votes honestly during a live election. Once again, Bena is gaslighting (psychologically manipulating) his audience.

At 12:46 Bena commits the bare assertion logical fallacy. He emphatically states that the machines are NOT connected to the internet, at any point. He claims they have NO wireless capability. He says there is NOT EVEN A PORT to connect to the internet. He emphatically makes all these claims without offering any evidence.
The facts:
Snake oil salesmen make emphatic statements. Bena is making emphatic bare assertions/statements about things that he has no firsthand knowledge of. In other words, he is simply regurgitating ES&S propaganda and talking points.
Bena does not conduct any inspection of the machine software or hardware. NONE.
Motherboards can easily be compromised during assembly, especially when that assembly occurs in a foreign country. A chip the size of a grain of rice can easily be inserted into a motherboard to make the machine internet/VPN/Etc-ready.
That said, no internet "ports" or chips are needed for the machines to connect to the internet. USB drives can be designed to do the trick. At the same time, the internet is not needed at all for computerized tabulators to rig an election. Tabulators receive software updates before every election. Those updates can easily include vote-count-manipulating software code.

We have enemies here at home and abroad engaging us in cyber warfare. Fortunes and wars are in the balance, creating huge incentive.
Bena is not on our side. He refuses to provide proof that our machines are not compromised. The certification of the machine offers no proof a machine isn't compromised, or won't be. See pg 2 of the certification document under "Significance of EAC Certification," found here:
https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/voting_system/files/EVS6100Cert_Scope_%2528FINAL%2529.pdf

Bena is being disingenuous when he says the machines aren't connected or compromised. And he's being emphatic about these claims to cover up his disingenuousness. In other words, naive people are impressed by authoritative-sounding claims that are really nothing more than lies.

At 13:28 Bena claims the only software on his machine (computerized tabulator) is the program that compiles the results.
The facts:
I covered this above. Bena has no idea what programs are on the tabulator. He has no idea if he is downloading honest results or rigged results. Then again, maybe he does have an idea, if he's in on the fix, which we must assume he is, since he refuses to be transparent.
When it comes to government, you have to assume the worst until proven otherwise.
The best construction we can put on Bena's claims is that he trusts ES&S and the claims they make.
But he doesn't have the right to exercise such trust on our behalf. These elections belong to We the People. And as I said above, We the People have no obligation or interest in simply trusting anyone to give us honest election results. Elections are too important to simply trust the results rather than KNOW for a fact what the true results are.
We the People have every right to expect transparent and verifiable elections.
And government is obligated to provide them. Transparent and verifiable vote counts are as much our right as voting is. The elective franchise is a franchise of, by and for the People, and every part of that franchise belongs to the People, especially the counting part. The only reason for secrecy in elections (outside of the secret ballot) is that someone is doing things they shouldn't be doing.
A private company like ES&S that is so secretive about everything and has a checkered history at best is certainly not unworthy of any trust at all.

At 14:30 Bena says election results are unofficial until the votes are canvassed by the canvassing board.
The facts:
Bena's statement means nothing. Canvassing boards have no idea what their responsibilities are, because Bena hasn't explained those responsibilities to them, much less trained them to fulfill them.
The canvassing board is responsible for inspecting and scrutinizing every aspect of the election, which includes the power to "open the ballots-cast container and recount the ballots," if they see fit (see NRS 32-1031), to ensure the validity of the results.
But the canvassing board simply takes the tabulator results at face value, while at the same time assuming the validity of every "voter."
Nebraska's canvassing boards are a joke, and they are committing a crime when they testify to the validity of election results, without having personal knowledge as to their validity.

At 14:50 Bena says there are multiple levels of security steps across the election process that can be checked to maintain the accuracy and integrity of our election process.
The facts:
Bena is blowing smoke (i.e., speaking more lies). His security checks are all faux security checks. No one is checking the hardware or software of the machines, or the USB drives. There is no ballot chain-of-custody with mail-in voting. Signature verification is a joke. Ballot boxes are not monitored. There is no proof that ballots can't be counterfeited. There is no protection against ballot dropbox stuffing or electioneering. There is no proof tabulation isn't being manipulated. Voters aren't allowed to watch tabulation. Secrecy breeds and hides corruption throughout the process.

At 16:26 Bena addresses a claim that was made by election integrity proponents. The claim was that more votes were cast in 2020 general election than there were people on the rolls, which, if true, would constitute fraud. Bena attempts to refute this claim by saying that Nebraska's voter file is a living, breathing document that is constantly changing because people are constantly being added and removed, therefore the claimant simply had his/her hands on the wrong voter file.
The facts:
Bena should offer to provide the right voter file. But he won’t, because he can’t.
In the absence of a right voter file, we must assume that Bena is just telling another story. I.e., a fake story. In other words, another lie.
The question that needs to be answered is, how can any election be certified when Bena and his election officials don't maintain a record of who votes in a given election (i.e., a record separate from the living, breathing voter file record) that can be compared with the number of votes? This is basic high school balance-your-checkbook stuff. Bena is basically admitting to not maintaining a list of who votes in a given election. Otherwise the allegation could never have arisen. This is the height of incompetence on Bena’s part.

At 19:58 Bena says people are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts. He says election integrity advocates don’t pass the six grade math teacher test, because they won't show their work.
The facts:
Bena needs to look in the mirror. He never shows his work. Nor the work of his secret machines.
Every claim he makes about his elections and the alleged integrity thereof is nothing more than a contrived opinion. He has no actual data or facts to back up his claim that, on the whole, his elections are in fact honest. NONE. He is only expressing, at best, his own credulous opinion that ES&S isn't compromised and our elections aren't being hacked. 

All Bena continues to do is deflect the onus, which is totally upon him, to prove election integrity rather than simply assert it, which any fool can do.

Bena is the one in a position to produce facts, but he refuses to do so. 

The only way to prove that his elections contain no fraud is by transparently counting the votes of all verified voters, by hand. Bena is either too lazy or too corrupt to allow that.  

At 20:34 Bena complains that no one has shown him or given him the "algorithm" that they claim is working in our elections.
The facts:
He’s lying again. The algorithm was presented to both him and Evnen, and a UNL statistics professor, in person, in July of 2021, by Leigh Anne Trausch and Melissa Sauder.
Anyone can see the algorithm here, starting at the 13:48: https://rumble.com/vheyaf-selected-understanding-nebraskas-2020-election-results.html
The algorithm isn't proof of fraud, in and of itself. But it’s an indication that demands further attention and investigation into the machines and the networking attached to them. 
The face that Bena denies being presented with the algorithm strongly suggests there's something to it that he desperately wants to avoid.

At 50:32-51:33 Bena claims the cast vote record is only a "capability" of the systems he purchases but not something he utilizes.
The facts:
Again, we must assume Bena is lying, in light of what the machine certificate and manuals say. According to said certificate and manuals, electronic cast vote records are not simply a "capability" of the machine, as Bena disingenuously claims, but a necessary step in the process by which the machine ultimately arrives at a tally of our votes. Barring a hacker, Bena's secret computerized scanner/tabulators do their tabulation work by simultaneously scanning the front and back of each paper ballot so they can convert the voter selection marks to an electronic cast vote record, per page 3 of the Certificate of Conformance provided by our SoS office found here:
https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/voting_system/files/EVS6100Cert_Scope_%2528FINAL%2529.pdf

According to pg 5 of the ES&S manual linked below:

"ES&S digital scanners use scanning technology similar to that of a copying machine to create two scanned images of the front and back of the ballot at the same time. These digital images are then processed by ES&S Electionware software, which creates a cast vote record (CVR). The CVR contains data from the front and back of the ballot and lists all vote selections made on the ballot. At the time of poll closing or data export, the CVRs are totaled to create aggregate results for that ballot scanning device. After the election, Electionware imports the tabulated results, machine logs, and images for reviewing, reporting, adjudication, and archiving."
https://votingsystems.cdn.sos.ca.gov/vendors/ess/evs6042/ess-6042-proc.pdf  

Also, on pg 231 of the same manual, we find this:

"After the election, Reporting is used to import tabulated results, machine logs, cast vote records, and ballot images by reading the election media from the ES&S election equipment USB flash drives/networked results; review, export, and report election results and media device-related data; and review/ adjudicate ballot images."  

Another ES&S manual (DS200 Operator Guide—not online) says the following:

"Note: If the election is set up to save no ballot images, the DS200 will not save any ballot images or cast vote records and the public and protected counters will not increment. This is a feature specifically used for hardware testing and should not be used to validate the tabulator’s mark detection accuracy during L&A."  
The tally of all cast vote records is what we call our "election results."

The internal digital spreadsheet of cast vote records is therefore also a means by which the vote-count can be audited. Bena is simply denying the existence of the Cast Vote Records in order to deceive and deprive citizens of the ability to audit his election results.

At 51:33 Wiltgen chimes in like a puppet and says he couldn't provide cast vote records even if they did exist, as state law would prevent him from doing so.
The facts:
Lancaster County Election Commissioner Newbie Wiltgen is in the wrong job. He is totally ignorant of the purpose of government in a constitutional republic. In a constitutional republic, the People are the rightful sovereigns. According to our state constitution, governments are instituted by the People, through their consent, for the purpose of protecting and securing their rights. The first right in a republic, beyond self-defense, is the right to exercise the elective franchise and all that it entails, including counting.
Elections belong to the People, not to government.
Wiltgen is demonstrating an unwillingness to serve the People and protect their rights.
If the law he refers to wasn't in conflict with our constitution, the simple solution would be to change the law, which lawmakers are constantly doing.
And the first people legislators consult in drafting election law is the SoS office, unfortunately.
But since the law is in conflict with our constitution, it is null and void. 
It's a no-brainer:
We "are by nature free and independent, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness...and such rights shall not be denied or infringed by the state or any subdivision thereof. To secure these rights, and the protection of property, governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Wiltgen needs to read his Constitution if he wishes to stay in his new gravy job.
Denying the People the right to know that their elections are secure and the results valid is a denial of a fundamental, God-given right, and the American People will not long endure such nonsense.
Government's purpose is to protect and serve with transparency, not act like dictators and tyrants.

We're about done.
I'll address one last part, which is actually the very beginning of Bena's presentation, where he admits to breaking the law. I addressed this in part at the beginning, but it bears repeating.

At 4:06 Bena inadvertently confesses to breaking the law: 

My name is Wayne Bena. I serve as deputy secretary of state for elections. I run the election division for the state of Nebraska and I've been in this position since September of 2017. Prior to that I served as Sarpy County election commissioner since 2010. And why I talk about that portion of my career is that I come from the county perspective. I'm not from the state. I'm here to help. I was picked from the counties. From that aspect, since I do come from the counties, I understand and respect the position that County election officials and boards are with resources and the things that they need to do to carry out their tasks and the dreaded unfunded mandate is something that I took with me when I came to the state of Nebraska. I was very happy as the Sarpy County election commissioner, and I probably would still be there right now if it hadn't been for my predecessor retiring and my belief that if someone from the county did not step up it would be years before new election equipment could be purchased for the state because our previous equipment was ending their life cycle. So I stepped up, took on that job and was able to procure new election equipment for all 93 counties at NOT county taxpayer costs. Between state and federal funds I was able to do all of that and even here in Lancaster County that had purchased a new machine previous, I overtook the maintenance of that machine. They took the risk. I told them, you know, if we ended up with new equipment, I wouldn't be able to do that but I was able to do that. So that's the perspective I bring coming to this. One of the things I took great pride in was that we purchased that equipment, delivered that equipment, and trained on that equipment by March 1st 2020. 

What law did Bena confess to breaking? See below. Nebraska law requires the cost of elections to be "an apportioned county expense" (or lower subdivision). 

NRS 32-1201.
Costs of election; payment; county expense.
The county board shall draw warrants in payment of all bills submitted by the election commissioner or county clerk related to the cost of any election conducted by the office of the election commissioner or county clerk. Except as otherwise provided in subsection (4) of section 32-1203, the initial payment for bills submitted to the election commissioner or county clerk for the cost of preparing for and conducting elections shall be a county expense. The compensation of the election commissioner or county clerk, the deputy election commissioner or deputy county clerk for elections, and all permanent employees of the election commissioner or county clerk, the expenditures for the rental, furnishing, and equipping of the office of the election commissioner or county clerk, the expenditures for necessary office supplies, books, documents, and appurtenances relating to or used in performing the duties of the election commissioner or county clerk in relation to elections, and the cost of elections for county, state, and federal governments shall be an apportioned county expense and shall not be chargeable to other political subdivisions.

Concluding thoughts.
Again, the purpose of the political subdivision we call a "county" is to decentralize power and enable local self-government through locally owned elections. 

Again, county payment for county elections infers county ownership of those elections.

The common People of this state are not happy about the shenanigans in our SoS office.

Wayne Bena is a usurper, of the worst kind, usurping absolute control over our county elections. And our counties aren’t willing to stand up to him.

State centralization, privatization and secretization of all our county elections is an outright denial of the People's right to self-government.

Centralized, privatized, secretized vote-counts facilitate taxation without true representation.

Taxation without true representation is the subversion of our constitutional government.

Nothing is more important to our constitutional republic and system of self-government than ensuring (and insuring) the integrity and validity of our elections through transparent vote-counts. 

Elections belong to the People, not state government, not ES&S and certainly not Bena or Evnen.

Bena is the quintessential election denier...denying Nebraskans the right to constitutional, transparent and publicly verifiable elections. He is, in effect, denying Nebraskans government of, by and for the People. 

Elections of, by and for the People are essential to government of, by and for the People.

Bena was presumably hired to administer the People's elections, not to make the People's elections his elections.

Bena is a tyrant that wants elections to be of, by and for himself. 

The longer he can keep Evnen in office, the longer he gets to stay in office. 

Bena is looking out for no one except number one.

Share this far and wide. Bena hates what’s in it.

Election officials in this state should save themselves by becoming whistleblowers. They’d have lots of support across the state.

Robert J. Borer
P.S. Friends, you can support the cause by forwarding this to your local county officials. Bena will hate you for it, but that will be a good thing.
Also, Dr. Frank will be in York next Tuesday. Details forthcoming.