Checking It Twice
Election officials have had no practical way to guarantee a correct ballot count—until now
Counting is hard. Neither people nor machines seem to be able to do it reliably. And that’s a nightmare for election officials who need an accurate ballot count to decide elections.
Eighteen states require officials to double-check the machine counts by hand for a portion of the ballots. But election officials have had little guidance on what to do with the recount results. If the election is close and the recount finds a few errors, should a registrar call for a larger recount or go ahead and certify the result? Most laws left it to their discretion.