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Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020

Does preserving ‘ballot images’ add extra election security?

Christopher Hutton, Gigafact
yes

"Ballot images," digital scans of ballots created at polling places or central election offices, are used by election officials to quickly tabulate votes. In some states, these scans must be preserved alongside original paper ballots and other "election materials," typically for 22 months after an election. Advocates say preserving the records provides an additional layer of election security.

The Democratic Party, some lawmakers and voters are suing to make Florida one of those states. The case isn't settled, but meanwhile eight large counties have agreed to retain images if a recount is needed after the Nov. 3 vote.

Some advocacy groups are pressing to make all ballot images (which are anonymized) publicly accessible via an open-source database for citizen auditing of results.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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