On Tuesday March 4, 2025, the Republican Party of Williamson Country held his convention at Franklin Marriott, located in the heart of the county of Williamson, in Tennessee.
During the event, the Republicans of “Bona Fide” (those who voted in the last three Republican primaries out of four) voted for the future of the local leadership of their party, with the two parties of the competition – Elevate and the Republicans of the county of Williamson – each proposing a list of eight candidates.
The final results of the vote were committed in (added to) Bitcoin Block 886,370 using the immutable proof service of simple proof, an automated service that uses the OpenTimestamps protocol to help protect public files.
Why simple proof?
Simple proof preserves the integrity of documents by committing numerical versions of said documents in the arbitrary data field (the OP_return function) of a Bitcoin transaction. In doing so, the documents are irrevocably engaged in a block on the Bitcoin blockchain, which is immutable.
This technology has proven to be excellent to preserve electoral files, as it helps to prevent the falsification of election results once the number of votes is finalized.
Simple Proof set out on the map when she helped obtain the number of votes for the 2023 presidential election in Guatemala, whose history is described in the short documentary “Immutable Democracy”.
The company also helped to preserve the integrity of the election results in Screven County, Georgia, last November.
It is in fact this story of the county of Screven which attracted the attention of Steve Giraud, a republican voter based in the county of Williamson who wanted to see the integrity of the statement of voices for the election of the republican management of the county of Williamson.
Thus, he and a friend with whom he organizes Bitcoin meetings, Dave Birnbaum (also a contributor to Bitcoin magazine), contacted the simple proof to employ his services.
“Steve, the person who contacted simple proof, described himself as a” concerned citizen “, said the founder and CEO of simple proof, Rafael (Rafa) cord with Bitcoin Magazine.
Cordon then explained this simple proof is politically impartial and that it only provides technological service.
“We are not working directly for a political organization or an electoral authority, just a person who wants to protect voting documents,” said Cordon.
Carlos Torillo, election led to simple evidence, reiterated the cord point that simple proof does not work on behalf of political groups and only works to preserve the integrity of key electoral documents.
“They can use our service to find out that the information on which they rely have been preserved,” Torillo told Bitcoin Magazine.
Pre-convention tension
When I spoke with Giraud the day before the vote, he seemed visibly nervous about potential interference during the night of the vote and / or the legal proceedings taken to challenge the legitimacy of the results of the elections after the fact.
Giraud, who is affiliated with The Williamson County Citizens, a group of “basic conservatives” who believes in small government, low taxes and reduced regulations, explained that the republican sect to which he belongs was deeply in disagreement with the conservatives of the county of Williamson, which he described as less “republicans Williamson “, which he described as less iderology” Republicans of the County of Williamson “.
During the Convention, the Republicans in good faith would vote for a total of eight party leaders, selected among the eight to the vote by Elevate, the republican group with which Giraud is affiliated and eight on the ballot by the conservatives of the county of Williamson.
In the weeks preceding the Convention, reports said that the Republicans of the County of Williamson led a disinformation campaign during which they claimed that Elevate was trying to suppress the vote because the Republican party of the county of Williamson (WCRP), composed of a majority of representatives of the livestock and mandated, the vote below the agreement.
According to Giraud, the conservatives of the county of Williamson also claimed that the WCRP had changed the room at the last minute as a means of reducing the participation rate of supporters of the conservatives of the county of Williamson.
Giraud argued that this was not the case, however.
“Given the participation in which we expected, we got closer to the maximum capacity or the occupancy rate for the place of origin, the Franklin Factory Liberty Hall,” he explained.
“Thus, a person of the Competition and Accreditation Committee (CCC) (which is a separate entity of WCRP) said that he had to change places, which could disadvantage certain voters. Now the WCRP will have volunteers at the factory with signs that say “the place has changed, going to the Marriott”, he added.
“But we are very concerned about the fact that if the opposition loses, they will threaten prosecution because of what the CCC has done.”
In addition, the County Conservatives of Williamson bombed the residents of the county of Williamson with shipowners, SMS and robot calls, partially funded by former Democrats.
Giraud said that the County Conservatives of Williamson “The carpet bombed 16,000 Republicans in good faith in the county of Williamson with shipowners – including 5,000 cost about $ 4,000.”
A report said that Williamson County Conservatives spent $ 50,000 on this campaign and that messaging was “emotional and aggressive”, leading to the conservatives of Williamson county and raises both the perception and the response to the accusations made by the opposing group.
The voting counting process
Simple proof does not guarantee the validity of the statements of the votes which he helps to preserve with the Bitcoin blockchain, it therefore belongs to the local electoral council to ensure the legitimacy of the voting process.
Giraud explained that only voters in good faith would be authorized in the voting area the night of the convention. He added that the voting area would be “secured by assistant sheriffs” and that all voters receive a bracelet which they must remove once they vote so that they cannot vote twice.
The whole vote is made on what Giraud called “bubble cards”, on which voters use a Sharpie pen to fill their choice for eight candidates on the ballot (farming candidates on one side of the ballot and candidates of the conservatives of Williamson Country on the other).
Four volunteer observers – two of Elevate and two of the County Conservatives of Williamson – monitor the vote.
During the vote, Giraud would act as a “judge for spoiled voting ballots”, allowing him to take note of any ballot on which someone wrote outside the bubbles or other irregularities that could cancel a vote.
Voting bulletins are powered by a machine (part of the voting process that Giraud noted that he does not necessarily like-“I am skeptical about all that implies a machine when it comes to a Bulletin marking system,” he said.)
The machines then produce the counting of the final vote for the night, however, the results could be counted on request at the request for breeding or the conservatives of the county of Williamson.
Voting results
The Elevate candidates won the eight party management seats.
However, victory has not been undisputed.
After the machines produced the results, the conservatives of Williamson Country requested a manual recount, which the electoral commission of the state of Tennessee led, according to Giraud. The recount led to an increase in victory by a very slightly wider margin than what was initially reported. (Proof simple timestamped both the initial results and the results of the manual recount, linked in the first section of this room, with the Bitcoin blockchain.)
“With the Manual story, we won a vote,” said Giraud.
Giraud also pointed out that his anxieties concerning potential interference in voting the night of the convention were peaceful, because the process went well, apart from a minor and unexpected event.
“There were so many elderly people here that they opened the doors to early voting,” he said.
At the end of the night, Giraud was not only relieved, however, he was optimistic about what had happened that evening and also hopes that simple proof technology will be used on a larger scale.
“I have just presented what I did to the president who will be smoked from the Republican Committee of the County of Williamson, who withdraws tonight,” said Giraud.
“It was very excited that we do this. I hope he will help us go further, not only in the county, but in the peripheral counties as well as to the state at a given time. This is my goal for the state of Tennessee: to increase transparency, ”he added.
“I even hope that the other side would approach Carlos (Torillo) and Rafa (cord) and wanted to use it for documentation as well as future elections to keep us responsible and force the truth and responsibility. This is my goal as a worried citizen. »»
