Verified Voting: Mandatory Manual Audits of Voter-Verified Paper Records

VVPR AND ROUTINE MANUAL AUDITS Map Legend VVPR + routine manual audits required (22) VVPR required; Audits not required but available (1) VVPR required; No audit requirement (10) VVPR not required but in use statewide; No audit requirement (6) * Audit Requirements, but VVPR not in use statewide (4) No VVPR requirement; No audit requirement (8)

The map above shows progress in our campaign for verifiable elections, showing states that, as of the 2010 election cycle, have provisions in law or regulation for voter-verified paper records and for routine manual audits of such records. Step 1 of our strategy has been to make sure that there is a paper record of every vote and that voters are able to verify the accuracy of that record before the ballot is cast (that paper record is called a "Voter-Verified Paper Record" or VVPR).

VerifiedVoting.org, our partners, and voters across the country have successfully persuaded the majority of state governments to pass legislation or establish regulations to require VVPR. 32 states, with more than half the U.S. population, now have such a requirement. We need your help to make sure the voters in the remaining 18 states are protected, through Federal or state legislation.

But we need to do even more to ensure that the results of elections are verifiable. Voter-verified paper records are most effective when used as the basis for mandatory manual audits in randomly selected precincts. Step 2 of our strategy is to encourage states to adopt laws or regulations requiring such mandatory manual audits of the VVPRs. 26 states and the District of Columbia have some form of provision for manual audits now. We need your help to pass laws in the remaining 24 states to require such audits, and to fill loopholes in some current state provisions. For example, Illinois and Washington do not perform manual audits of optical scan paper ballots, though optical scan is the most widely used voting system in these states.

Help us complete the legislative push toward reliable, secure, verifiable, and transparent elections! Please visit our action center (click here) to turn the whole country green with voter-verified paper records and mandatory manual audits of those records. Click on the map to see our legislation tracking web page.

Note regarding the map above: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Maryland and Tennessee are shown as having a VVPR requirement because they have enacted VVPR legislation, but these states' requirements will not be fully implemented until after 2010. Arkansas requires VVPR but not in all counties; three counties remain paperless with no deadline for change, so we consider this an incomplete requirement. In the case of Colorado, all but two counties now use voting systems with VVPR. Most Florida counties use paperless touch screen systems for accessibility, but an overwhelmingly majority of voters vote by marking optically scanned paper ballots. Maryland and Tennessee are expected to implement statewide optical scan systems after 2010. See the Verifier map for more detail on the voting systems in use nationwide.