The Free & Equal Elections Foundation conducted an audit of the results of its recent poll to determine who will participate in the organization’s presidential debate later this month. The audit results were publicly released on Wednesday night, revealing several anomalies in the final totals.
Earlier this week, Free & Equal announced the results of a poll it conducted throughout January utilizing blockchain technology. The top six candidates determined by the poll will participate in a debate held by the organization on February 29, 2024.
“In our commitment to uphold the highest standards of transparency and integrity, we recently conducted an in-depth audit of our poll results via our Free and Equal beta app, utilizing blockchain technology,” the organization said in a statement on Wednesday night. “Our findings have led to the identification of irregularities that we believe are crucial to address.”
According to the audit results, which were published on X, the poll had over 83,000 “illegal votes.” These discrepancies were discovered through an analysis conducted by Free & Equal, comparing voting patterns described as organic to instances where votes were cast multiple times per second. Something the organization called a “stark deviation from the norm.”
The statement listed four candidates who were impacted in particular, naming Party for Socialism and Liberation nominee Claudia De la Cruz, American Solidarity Party nominee Peter Sonski, Green Party candidate Jasmine Sherman, and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver. These four candidates had irregular vote counts of 73,122, 6,990, 1,818, and 1,254 votes, respectively.
Readers can find more information about the debate and the initial results of the top six candidates in an earlier article.
Free & Equal has now turned to its supporters to determine the next steps, providing them with the opportunity to decide on the best course of action for candidates found to have voting irregularities. The organization has made its blockchain audit logs and candidate information available for public review. Ultimately, it will make an informed decision based on collective feedback, analyses, suggestions, and any additional metrics provided by supporters.
Since the audit was made public, one presidential candidate and one staffer involved with another candidate mentioned by Free & Equal have addressed the irregularities.
Steve Dasbach, who manages the Chase Oliver for President campaign, denied that Oliver participated in or promoted any behaviors that would lead to the irregularities. He also stated that the campaign provided the organization with data to aid in their investigation. “Chase absolutely didn’t promote or encourage this. Neither did his campaign team. We informed F&E that something appeared to be wrong and asked them to investigate. We also provided data to aid in their investigation,” Dasbach said on X in response to news of the audit.
Green Party candidate Jasmine Sherman also addressed the results, sharing a video on X where she stated that the organization accused her supporters of cheating. “Surprised to see [Free & Equal] only flagging non-mainstream votes for timing? Verified votes should count, no matter when they’re cast. As a latecomer, my surge in votes was expected. Odd that only mainstream candidates passed without a hitch,” Sherman stated.
Independent Political Report has reached out to the Free & Equal Elections Foundation regarding any voting irregularities found in candidates beyond the four listed. Additional candidate statements or statements made by members of their respective campaigns will be added to this article as Independent Political Report becomes aware of them.
Assume that F&E can’t just toss candidates with the alleged fraudulent votes, since that removes half of the finalists as well as Sonski who finished seventh. Williamson has dropped out and RFK probably wouldn’t participate. That would bump up three Libertarians who couldn’t muster anything near the support that Oliver and Mapstead generated. If they just subtract the alleged fraudulent votes Sherman drops below RFK who, again, might not be willing to show up. Perhaps he gets invited but it winds up being only five in the debate.