Republican lawmakers in at least six states have introduced legislation that would require all ballots to be counted by hand instead of electronic tabulators, and similar proposals are being floated in some county and local governments around the U.S. The push comes as the nation continues to deal with the fallout from the 2020 election and false claims of a stolen election by former President Donald Trump, despite no evidence of widespread fraud
, conspiracy theories have proliferated among his allies that voting systems were somehow manipulated to favor Democrat Joe Biden. That has prompted calls to ban electronic tabulators used to scan ballots, record votes and compile race tallies.
Critics of the proposals to ditch electronic ballot tabulators and return to hand-counting are blunt about what they see as the motivation. Even in New Hampshire’s small towns, hand-counting is a complicated, lengthy process when a typical ballot might include 50 questions, said Milford Town Clerk Joan Dargie, who spoke against the proposed legislation on behalf of the New Hampshire City and Town Clerks Association. She estimates her town would have to increase its number of election workers from 200 to 350, and said many of her fellow clerks have said they will quit if they have to tabulate every ballot by hand.
Most states also conduct post-election audits that are designed to identify any irregularities with ballot scanning and counting. But withelection machines have become a popular target. In West Virginia, a bill to repeal the state law governing tabulation machines died in committee earlier this month. In Missouri, lawmakers have not yet acted on a proposal that would ban electronic voting machines and tabulation equipment and require hand-counting to be livestreamed and recorded.
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