What is #CountTheVote?

#CountTheVote is a project to monitor, protect & verify election results. We use crowdsourcing and new technologies to help make sure that every vote gets counted accurately. The work is done by volunteers – like you!

Why is this project necessary?

In a 2019 C-SPAN poll, only 50% of Americans said they believed the election would be “conducted openly and fairly.”  In a recent survey 70 percent of Republicans said they “don’t believe the 2020 election was free and fair.” That is not good for our democracy.

 

The goal of #CountTheVote is to improve our elections and increase everyone’s confidence in them. 

 

More transparency, better technology

and more public oversight are needed. 

Georgia – Poll Tape Discrepancies

(2020 Presidential)

The first stage of our current project is to compare images of poll tapes (also called Election Night results tapes) with the published results to check for accuracy. What is a poll tape?

If the poll tapes match the published results, that gives the public increased confidence in the election. If the poll tapes don’t match – that indicates more investigation is needed. We collected poll tape images from 14 states. We are currently releasing the data on Georgia. Many poll tapes we examined did match the published results. That is excellent. Here are five precinct poll tapes from Georgia that did not match, and what we are doing to find out why.

Cobb Bryant 02

Cobb Fair Oaks 04

Fulton SS08A

Henry North Hampton

Spalding 21

Georgia – Missing Poll Tapes

(2020 Presidential)

Georgia statutes require poll tapes to be posted.

Georgia Precincts with Missing Poll Tapes

Georgia – Resolved Discrepancies

(2020 Presidential)

Some discrepancies have been resolved, either by the County finding the votes, or by our team having a better understanding of the issues.

Cobb Roswell 01

Terrell County – Not a Discrepancy

GA Votes Changed in Recounts

(2020 Presidential)

Comparisons between the different vote counts raise concerns.

Original Count vs. Machine Recount

The GA Hand-Count Audit

GA Counts Compared – All Counties

Election Poll Tape Results

(2020 Presidential)

Click on a state to see the poll tape data transcribed from that states polling locations.

Florida

Georgia

Pennsylvania

How It Works

Recruit People To Help With The Process

Before the election, we recruit volunteers to capture images of poll tapes from polling locations across the United States. Poll tapes are often posted at the polling location. The method varies based on state statutes. See the statutes by state.

Volunteers Capture Images of Poll Tapes

This part of the process is now done for the 2020 election.  Poll tapes are captured with photo and video and posted online.

Volunteers Transcribe The Results

Volunteers gather the data from images and videos of poll tapes and transcribe it into and spreadsheets, where it can be quantitatively tabulated and analyzed.

Compare The Data To Official Results

This is the critical part of the process that we are in now for the 2020 election – we are asking for volunteers to help compare poll tape data to official results! If the results and the poll tapes are the same – we can have more confidence that no votes were changed between the polling location and the reporting of the totals. Additional procedures are necessary to verify other parts of the process as well.

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Why This Matters

Are you ready to help count the votes and protect our elections?

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