Transparency for Kansas voting machines takes step back as auditor loses access to hardware

From Ballot Access News article, Kansas Statistician Loses State Court Fight to Look at Vote-Counting Machine Innards:

On February 18, a Kansas state court ruled that statistician Beth Clarkson can’t have access to the vote-counting machine tapes from the November 2014 election. See this story. The statistician, Beth Clarkson, has identified statistical anomalies in the precinct election returns which, she says, suggests that the vote-counting machines are not producing accurate results.

From the Wichita Eagle:

A Sedgwick County judge has ruled that a Wichita State University statistician won’t get access to paper tapes from voting machines to search for fraud or mistakes.

Judge Tim Lahey denied a motion by Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman to dismiss the case brought by statistician Beth Clarkson. But that was a hollow victory for Clarkson. Her point in filing the lawsuit was to gain access to the tapes to check the accuracy of the voting machines, searching for an answer to statistical anomalies she has found in election results.

The paper tapes at issue are printed by the voting machines as each voter casts a ballot. The voter can view the tape through a plastic window in the machine to verify their choices before hitting a button that records their votes.