Corrected: This post has been updated to reflect that Massachusetts election officials did not destroy ballots in the Republican U.S. Senate primary, as alleged by candidate V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai.
Former US Senate candidate Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, the inventor of Email, accused Massachusetts officials of illegally destroying over 1 million ballots in a US Senate primary race. He claimed that a Massachusetts Elections Attorney confirmed to Dr. Shiva that ballot images, used for counting votes, that must be saved by FEDERAL LAW for 22 months, are nowhere to be found.
Further followup from election officials in the state say that despite his claim of a million ballots being destroyed, just under 300,000 ballots were actually cast in the race by Republicans.
Dr. Ayyadurai’s representative later clarified he was not accusing the state of destroying the original paper ballots, but of not saving digital copies that might have been generated during the count.Further, approval of digital scan equipment in Massachusetts specifically prohibits the capturing of ballot images.
Via Dr. Shiva.
“[A]ppropriate state or local authority MUST PRESERVE ALL RECORDS to detection & prosecution of election crimes for 22-month federal retention period, if records were generated in connection w election that was held in whole or in part to select federal candidates.”
-USC Title 42— Dr.SHIVA Ayyadurai, MIT PhD. Inventor of Email (@va_shiva) September 24, 2020