• Original Reporting
  • References

The Trust Project

Original Reporting This article contains firsthand information gathered by reporters. This includes directly interviewing sources and analyzing primary source documents.
References This article includes a list of source material, including documents and people, so you can follow the story further.
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(Provided by Gigafact.)

No.

Studies show that manually counting votes is more prone to errors than counting by machine.

In 2022, Nevada’s Nye County attempted to hand-count their ballots and saw error rates as high as 25%. Hand-counting is also slower and can increase election costs. California’s Shasta County estimated the cost of manually counting 110,000 ballots was $1.65 million. Places in the U.S. that count ballots by hand tend to have 1,000 or fewer registered voters. 

Voting machines regularly go through “logic and accuracy” tests to make sure they tabulate ballots correctly, and can be further audited by comparing their results against hand-counted vote tallies. 

In Colorado, bipartisan groups of county officials test voting equipment and audit elections to ensure accuracy. Both processes are observable by the public as an additional layer of verification.

See full source list below.

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References:

Hand Counted Paper Ballots, Verified Voting, accessed in November 2024. Source link.

Nye County ballot hand count won’t make Thursday deadline, CW Las Vegas, Nov. 16, 2022. Source link.

Analysis of Manual Tally Options for Shasta County, Shasta County Elections Department, accessed in November 2024. Source link.

Your vote is safe, Vote.gov, accessed in November 2024. Source link.

Facts vs Myths on Election Security, Colorado Secretary of State, accessed in November 2024. Source link.

Post-Election Auditing: Effects of Procedure and Ballot Type on Manual Counting Accuracy, Efficiency, and Auditor Satisfaction and Confidence, Election Law Journal, March 2012. Source link.

An Examination of the Auditability of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) Ballots, Rice University, January 2007. Source link.

Learning From Recounts, Election Law Journal, accessed in November 2024. Source link.

Ballot Hand Counts Lead to Inaccuracy, Voting Rights Lab, Feb. 27, 2024. Source link.

Type of Story: Fact-Check

Checks a specific statement or set of statements asserted as fact.

Por recently graduated from CU Boulder with a master’s degree in journalism and is interested in writing about the environment and exploring local stories. When not working on some form of writing, Por is either looking for Thai food or petting...