The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 27, 2024
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
Five states are considering legislation banning electronic ballot tabulators, driven by debunked conspiracy theories that the machines were used to rig the 2020 election. Where hand counting has been implemented, it’s less accurate, takes longer, and costs more.
Bills in Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Arizona, and South Carolina all propose banning optical ballot tabulators, which would include machines by Dominion Voting Systems and other companies.
Votebeat Texas reported on Republicans in one Texas county who DID count 8,000 GOP primary ballots by hand. It took 24 hours, involved 200 workers, and resulted in multiple human errors. The 2020 primary election in Gillespie County used electronic tabulators, required only 45 workers, and the process took only a few hours.
But voters in some areas are fed up. Earlier this month, voters in 22 of 23 New Hampshire towns defeated a coordinated effort to ban tabulators at the local level.
In conspiracy hotbed Shasta County, California, county supervisors doubled down in February, voting to hand count the 2024 Presidential election, despite a new state law restricting when hand counting can be used. But the Shasta Scout reports that in the March 5th primary, one of those supervisors was ousted, and another is within a few votes of being recalled. Ironically, a hand recount is likely.
We links to more on hand counting at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
Democracy Docket – New Report Sheds Light on Hand Counting Ballots Ahead of 2024
Democracy Docket – The Push for Hand Counting: A Step Back in Responsible Election Practices
Voting Rights Lab – States with pending legislation to ban ballot tabulators
Associated Press – Vote-counting machine foes hoped for a surge of success in New Hampshire. They got barely a ripple
Votebeat Texas – ‘Are you kidding me’: Gillespie County Republican hand count stretched into early morning hours
Votebeat Texas – ‘I can’t believe I did that’: Texas county’s GOP officials found multiple errors after hand count
Democracy Docket – Shasta County, California Wants to Hand Count Votes Again
Shasta County Board of Elections – RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING A LOCAL ORDINANCE MANDATING HAND COUNTED BALLOTS AT PRECINCTS USING PAPER POLLBOOKS
Shasta Scout – With 803 Votes Left to Count, Supervisor Kevin Crye Continues to Resist Recall Attempt
Groups Taking Action:
Brennan Center for Justice, Institute for Responsive Government
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