Election officials in Wyoming tried something new this year: hand counting ballots. The hand count was an extra audit of a portion of ballots cast in the primary. It was meant to offer a point of comparison between human counters and the machine tabulators all Wyoming counties use to tally votes. Wyoming Public Radio’s Jordan Uplinger sat in on Albany County’s hand count.
Editor's Note: This story has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Melodie Edwards: Jordan, could you start by painting us the scene?
Jordan Uplinger: Happily! It’s a sunny warm day as I walked into this room around 9:45 in the morning. It looks like it’s normally used for committee meetings. Some folks from around town are slowly filling in behind me, but it's not packed by any means. There’s three fold out tables, each with four people, all very talkative with one another. Each fold out table had a team, plus someone from the clerk’s office to help out. So you had Team Megan, Team Stacy and Team Kayla – the names of the Clerk office staff that were assisting. It’s very upbeat and chipper for a bureaucratic process.
Kayla White: I'm trying to convince, I mean I've never done this before
Ballot Counter: You’re dragging us along with ya
Kayla White: Will all learn together
ME: What exactly are these people all there to do?
JU: They all volunteered to show up to the Albany County Courthouse to hand count 5% of the ballots cast in the election, and compare those tallies to the electronic voting machines. They’re here to show both that the machines work and that the process itself was secure.
For Albany County, 5% of the total vote equated to a little under 500 ballots. Each team had two ballot readers and two ballot recorders. The teams would go through the county’s legislative races, then one federal and one state race. These races were chosen by the secretary of state.
ME: Why is this hand count audit happening now?
JU: Some residents and members of the state Republican Party have been pushing to only hand count ballots in the name of election integrity and security.
In this year’s legislative session, there were five bills about hand counting: Two to use hand counting for recounts [and as a post-election audit] [HB 52 and HB 51], and two to only use hand counting and ban machine tabulators [HB 94 and SF 108]. Those four bills failed.
The bill to set up this comparison between hand counting and the machine tabulators passed.
ME: And how did the audit itself go?
JU: Albany County’s hand count matched, compared to the machine counters. Some counties only just did the hand count audit Thursday, so results are still trickling in. I saw an article from the Gillette News Record that their hand count matched the machine results “100%, no issues.”
Of course, getting there is an effort in and of itself. Some people on the Albany County crew had questions.
Ballot counter: Is it just our, just us –
Kayla White: Just our legislative races.
Ballot counter: Why is it that we’ve never done this before?
KW: Because it’s never been required.
Ballot counter: If you voted for two, and you only should of voted for one, that whole race doesn’t count?
KW: Correct, it’s an over vote.
JU: Despite the questions, this Albany County crew had a few things going for them. For one thing, they all got along great
KW: If you guys need something, we will be your helpers?? but we are not to conduct a hand count audit. We’re only here to facilitate the process.
Ballot counter: I need a chilli cheese burger.
Ballot counter: I just need a fork.
KW: I’m gonna tell you, if [at] about 12:30 if we’re still at, Tammy is ordering pizza.
JU: The second benefit was experience. Some of the participants are county judges, others had volunteered for election related work in the past.
The third factor was Albany County Clerk Kayla White and her staff. Despite this being their first time conducting a hand count, they really knew their stuff. Here’s White:
KW: The trepidation for me is trying to train somebody to do something that you've never done before is really kind of nerve-racking, because they’re looking at me as the clerk like, ‘You should know how to do this.’ But this isn't something that we historically do. Now it's something that, I know how to count a ballot. I know what an overvote is, I know what an undervote is, but it is kind of nerve-racking.
ME: Sounds like they were kind of flying blind. Were they able to land the plane?
JU: I think it was a smooth landing. The process started roughly around 10 a.m.. By 2:30 p.m. that same day, at least one team had finished their counts and left already. Another team was finishing up, mostly just hanging out at that point, finishing off some of the snacks and pizza the clerk brought for everyone. Around 3:00, the audit was complete and on the way to the secretary of state.
ME: Those teams, you said they all got along and were very friendly. But what did they think of the process?
JU: toward the end, I overheard the clerks talking about how one individual “was not a fan of the process,” likely referring to the method of hand counting. But in a civil service sense, most people were happy to answer the call.
Tom Mattimore, one of the volunteers, said he was excited to put to rest conspiracy theories around machine tabulators, like the DS200.
Tom Mattimore: The entire internet for years has been filled with stories for years about how the DS200 was rigged … because, supposedly, it was invented by a guy in Venezuela, and they even went so far as to say the guy who invented it has Nazi connections, or communist connections, depending on who you want to read.
JU: This crowd was a bit older. I say that because Mattimore said the best thing about elections in America is that they’re run by your grandma and grandpa. And from where I was standing, those folks looked like the protectors of the ballots.
ME: Overall, how’d the hand count go? Was it the same as the machine counters?
JU: Like I mentioned, all the results were sent to the secretary of state, then the State Canvassing Board met with the Wyoming Election Division and have essentially certified the primary vote in Wyoming as secure and accurate.
Aside from two minor misprints that were quickly corrected by county clerks, the election divisions called it a “successful” election.
ME: Will this happen again come November?
JU: Yup, and that one is gonna be a lot bigger due to the nature of general elections. White, the Albany County clerk, said she’ll need more people, probably some more pizza and a much bigger space than just a room in the courthouse. Even with experience and community, those counts can jump to the 1,000s and take way more than a day to complete. So keep an eye, and an ear, out for our coverage of that day.
