Video & Transcript Research : 'hand counting'
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WY
Transcript Highlights:
- That's not a $5,000 hand count. Um, that might be a $500 hand count.
- That might be a $200 hand count. They would get the remainder of that back.
- That's not a $5,000 hand<00:03:23.200>
count. - Um that might be a $500 hand count. Um that might be a $500 handc<00:03:25.920>
count. - That might be a $200 hand handc count.
WY
Wyoming 2026 Regular Session
Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions, May 22, 2026 - AM
Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions
Transcript Highlights:
- hand counting and hand verification. hand counting and hand verification.
- Then the next one is hand counting.
- The House Bill 94 hand count system, head count, yeah, hand count system, essentially the one that eliminates
- Hand counts allow or manipulation.
- Random hand count audits.
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- Or let me add, if I may add something to that, maybe voter marked hand counting.
- Estimated cost of what that would be to hand count ballots in our counties?
- Mary, that if every county in Texas opted to hand count, we would not have had enough money to pay for
- ballots. counted their mail ballots through a hand-tally.
- And those were obviously voter-marked because they were mail ballots. and those were hand-counted.
MN
Transcript Highlights:
- a minimum of two precincts to be hand counted.
- The results from the hand count cannot deviate from the machine count beyond the thresholds outlined
- drawn to be included in a public hand drawn to be included in a public hand count<00:47:07.440><
- <00:47:26.480>
counted two precincts to be hand counted two precincts to be hand counted the - <00:47:36.839>
count ballots the results from the hand count ballots the results from the
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- In some counties across Texas, elections are conducted using hand-counted ballots.
- Hand-counting is costly, time-consuming, less secure, and less accurate.
- This bill does not prohibit hand-counting or require the audit of hand-counting.
- I've been part of a hand count and a recount.
- She did not speak with anyone who was on the team that actually put together the hand count.
Keywords:
HB 128, sister city, sister-city agreement, international exchange, municipal diplomacy, local government, state agency, political subdivision, foreign adversary, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Taiwan, major non-NATO ally, cultural exchange, educational exchange, tourism, bilateral cooperation, foreign relations
FL
Florida 2025 Regular Session
October 8, 2025 - 08:30 AM
Transcript Highlights:
- Representative Weinberg asked whether mail-in ballots can be hand-counted in addition to machine counting
- He said hand-counting becomes very difficult because of the time involved.
- He said that while a small county might make hand-counting more doable, he does not want hand-counting
- The Secretary said that if the margins are close enough, there is a provision for a hand count of an
- individual race, but that is different from hand-counting an entire election.
Summary:
The Government Operations Subcommittee met to hear a lengthy presentation from Secretary of State Cord Byrd on Florida election administration, with a focus on how elections are handled during natural disasters, election security, and preparations for the 2026 cycle. Byrd described Florida’s response to hurricanes in 2022 and 2024, saying the state works directly with county supervisors of elections to tailor executive orders to local conditions, add or relocate polling sites, extend deadlines, and help displaced voters and emergency workers cast ballots. Members from affected areas echoed that local supervisors had managed storm disruptions well and that turnout remained strong despite major damage.
A large portion of the meeting covered election integrity and security. Byrd emphasized Florida’s use of paper ballots, pre-election logic and accuracy testing, post-election audits, public canvassing, standardized voter-intent rules, and strict vote-by-mail request and signature-match requirements. He said the Department of State’s Office of Election Crimes and Security investigates complaints and refers matters to law enforcement, and that Florida has expanded access to the federal SAVE database to verify citizenship. Members asked about threats to election workers, staffing vacancies, cybersecurity, ballot design, vote-by-mail address changes, and how the state coordinates with county supervisors, emergency management, and other agencies.
Several members raised questions about voter eligibility and returning citizens, and Byrd said the department provides free information to help people determine whether their rights have been restored, while noting that court and clerk reporting practices still create challenges. He also said the department is considering additional legislative proposals, including more safeguards tied to driver’s license and citizenship verification and a possible statewide 100% audit of races before certification. The meeting ended with the chair encouraging members to visit supervisors of elections offices and submit specific ideas for future elections legislation; no votes were taken and the committee adjourned.
AZ
Transcript Highlights:
- Then, Michael, if you hand it to your grandchild in the back seat, it's not in your hand.
- So while the statute may be initially hands-free or non-hands-free, it says the essence of this. hands-free
- It's not going to count.
- It's not going to count.
- eligible for us to count.
Keywords:
sample ballots, elections, primary election, general election, mailing deadline, ballot mailing, county election officials, board of supervisors, secretary of state, early voting list, election administration, voter information, postal service, USPS processing center, city elections, town elections, special district elections, Arizona election law, ballot proofing, party chair
Summary:
The Judiciary and Elections Committee approved the minutes from February 18, February 20, and March 4, 2026, and then took up several election and traffic-related measures. House Bill 2006, which would require counties without a USPS processing and distribution center to mail printed sample ballots 14 days before an election instead of 11, was explained as a way to allow more time for mail delivery in affected counties. The Association of Counties supported the bill, and after brief discussion it passed on a 7-0 vote.
House Bill 2109, dealing with hands-free driving penalties, drew extensive debate. The bill would raise penalties for repeat violations, add a penalty when a violation results in a motorcycle crash, and expand the prohibition to watching, recording, or streaming video on a device while driving. Two amendments were offered to remove the citation ban and to strike the “records” language, but members and witnesses raised concerns that the remaining video-streaming language was vague and could unintentionally affect dash cams, rear cameras, CarPlay, navigation, rideshare safety cameras, and other in-vehicle systems. After robust discussion, the committee held the bill without prejudice to allow a stakeholder meeting and possible revision.
House Bill 2167, which would impose liability on the Attorney General for damages when a public nuisance or consumer fraud action is dismissed or found meritless under certain conditions, received divided testimony. Supporters argued it would curb overreach, while opponents said it would interfere with the AG’s ability to protect Arizonans. The committee approved the bill 4-3. Finally, HCR 2016, a referral measure that would eliminate county vote centers and on-site early voting and impose a precinct cap of 2,500 registered voters, drew strong opposition from voting rights groups, county officials, and rural and Navajo Nation witnesses who warned it would increase confusion, provisional ballots, costs, and access barriers. The committee did not act on the resolution and instead held it without prejudice for further stakeholder discussions.
MA
Massachusetts 2025-2026 Regular Session
Joint Committee on Election Laws Jun 21st, 2026 at 01:00 pm
Joint Committee on Election Laws
Transcript Highlights:
- The example that came to mind is in the 2020 audit in Georgia, which turned out to be a full hand count
- There's a lot of people who believe that a hand count may be more accurate, despite what I think the
- I'm sorry, let's focus on risk-limiting audits, but the most common method likewise is hand counts of
- counts of specific contests in specific batches of ballots Hand counts of specific contests in specific
- So instead of hand counting thousands of ballots, you might be examining 50 or 100 ballots.
Summary:
The Committee on Election Laws held a hearing on election security bills, focusing first on S. 517 and H. 876, which would strengthen Massachusetts’ post-election audit process. Testimony from the Brennan Center, Common Cause Massachusetts, Verified Voting, and the League of Women Voters supported expanding audits to include all ballot types, increasing audit frequency from every four years to every two years, requiring statewide audit reports to be posted within 30 days and kept online for six years, and allowing municipalities to conduct audits under state standards. Witnesses also praised the bill’s creation of a work group to study risk-limiting audits and other improvements, emphasizing public confidence, transparency, and the ability of audits to detect errors or deter fraud.
Committee members asked detailed questions about how Massachusetts compares with other states, how risk-limiting audits differ from current tabulation audits, how audits are selected and expanded if discrepancies appear, and what the costs and mechanics of different audit methods would be. Witnesses explained that current audits are typically random, hand-count-based checks of selected contests and batches of ballots, that risk-limiting audits use statistical sampling and can escalate to a full recount if needed, and that Massachusetts’ local-control structure makes a collaborative work group useful. They also noted that audits generally confirm results but can uncover errors that do not change outcomes, and occasionally more serious problems.
The committee then heard testimony on H. 832, which would authorize the Secretary of the Commonwealth to take emergency actions affecting elections during declared emergencies. Supporters said the bill would create a clear statutory process for rescheduling or adjusting elections during severe weather or other crises, including allowing emergency absentee ballot accommodations for civilian responders, and would reduce the need for court intervention. No votes were taken on the bills during the hearing, and the meeting ended with adjournment after no additional testimony was offered.
NH
Transcript Highlights:
- counting counting devices<00:16:08.959>
um <00:16:09.480>that <00:16:09.759>are - is Jean Shiner oh um where do I hand is Jean Shiner oh um where do I hand this<00:46:11.559>
- >
doesn't <01:40:40.760>say <01:40:40.960>hand or they have counted it doesn't say - hand or they have counted it doesn't say hand count<01:40:41.440>
in <01:40:41.560>the - count in the law but they have counted count in the law but they have counted the<01:40:43.239><
Summary:
The House Election Law Committee held an orientation and then opened a public hearing on House Bill 67-FN-A, which would make permanent the use of accessible voting machines in local elections and provide funding for additional systems. The chair outlined committee procedures, noting a heavy workload of roughly 70 to 80 bills, mostly Tuesday meetings, likely time limits on testimony, and a default of executive session unless a bill is specifically noticed. Members and staff were introduced, and the Secretary of State’s office described its election-related responsibilities, including voter registration, cybersecurity, ballot-counting equipment, and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) program.
Secretary of State David Scanlan and Deputy Secretary Aon Hennessy explained the current pilot program created by last year’s law, which requires accessible voting systems for local elections and allows the state to share machines with municipalities during the first half of 2025. They said the office has made hardware available, but towns have raised concerns about the speed of implementation and the cost of programming each election, especially for towns with multiple ballot questions. Scanlan said the state is also vetting longer-term options, including devices that could remain in polling places year-round, and suggested the committee consider delaying the bill’s effective date to January 1, 2026 to better align with implementation needs. Hennessy said the current state devices are older and complicated to reset for each election, and estimated programming costs could be about $600 for a small single-election ballot and much higher for towns with multiple elections.
Supporters of the bill emphasized the importance of accessible voting for people with disabilities. Representative Robert Wy said the measure builds on 2024 law and would move the pilot into a permanent agreement, citing ADA concerns and prior testimony about discriminatory voting experiences. Fred Forier, a legally blind voter from Exeter, testified that accessible voting systems allow him to vote privately and independently and urged support for the bill. Committee members asked about the gap if the pilot ends before a permanent system is in place and about the cost range for programming. No vote was taken during the hearing, and the committee moved on after public testimony began.
CA
California 2025-2026 Regular Session
Assembly Elections Committee Apr 9th, 2025
Transcript Highlights:
- You show up to a vote center, hand in your ballot.
- .the real driver of the lengthy counting times on our ballots.
- Again, third-world countries count their ballots by midnight.”
- Again, third-ruled countries count their ballots by midnight.
- Again, third world countries count their ballots by midnight.
Summary:
The committee heard a long agenda of elections-related bills. It first approved three consent items: AB 808, AB 1029, and AB 1072. The committee then took up AB 1249, which would require non-Voter’s Choice Act counties to offer at least one Saturday early-voting location before statewide elections and allow in-person return of vote-by-mail ballots at designated county offices or satellite locations. Supporters said it would expand access for working voters and those with transportation barriers; some members raised concerns about ballot verification and added workload for rural counties. The bill passed the committee on a divided vote and was placed on call for absent members.
The committee next considered AB 25, a voter ID and election integrity measure that would require citizenship verification, government ID for voting, tighter voter-roll audits, and a 72-hour ballot-counting deadline. The author and supporters argued it would restore public trust and improve election integrity, while opponents from the League of Women Voters, ACLU California Action, labor groups, disability advocates, and others said it would restrict access, burden vulnerable voters, and amount to voter suppression. After extensive debate, the committee voted the bill out on a narrow split and kept it on call.
Members also approved AB 1164, which clarifies when voters are entitled to a replacement ballot and updates the Voter Bill of Rights language; AB 1441, which would create an independent citizens redistricting commission in Merced County despite opposition from the county board over cost and local control; and AB 16, which would clarify county election officials’ authority to begin processing vote-by-mail ballots earlier and clean up outdated code. The committee also heard AB 1411, which would require non-VCA counties to prepare voter education and outreach plans and use a Secretary of State template, with the sponsor saying it would improve voter information statewide.
MA
Massachusetts 2025-2026 Regular Session
Senate Committee on the Census Jun 21st, 2026 at 10:30 am
Senate Committee on the Census
Transcript Highlights:
- To count all of the people in the Commonwealth, or to help the census count all of the people in the
- The decennial count, or the count that we get once every 10 years, sets the base for the estimates, the
- and their current block counts.
- UMDI versus census counts by block.
- It was an all-hands effort.
Summary:
The Senate Committee on the Census held a hearing on September 22, 2025 focused on preparations for the 2030 census, with an emphasis on Massachusetts’ role in building a complete address list and improving local participation in census-related address review programs. Chair Brownsberger and witnesses from the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office, the UMass Donahue Institute, Watertown, and MassGIS described the importance of accurate address data for congressional apportionment, federal funding, and state and local planning. They also discussed the first major upcoming step, the Block Boundary Suggestion Project, and the later Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) process, both of which rely on municipalities reviewing and correcting census geography and address files.
John Rosenberry of the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office said outreach to cities and towns is beginning now, with a likely December start for the block boundary process based on the 2020 cycle. He stressed that local officials, clerks, building inspectors, housing authorities, and GIS staff should be engaged early, especially to capture new development and conversions created under the state’s housing policies. Susan Strait of UMass Donahue explained that LUCA allows local governments to compare their address lists with the Census Bureau’s master address file, and that Massachusetts had very high participation in 2020; she cited examples where local review added hidden or newly built housing units and noted that Boston later corrected a group-quarters undercount of about 6,000 students through a post-census review program. In response to questions, she clarified that those corrections affected annual estimates and funding formulas, but not the 2020 apportionment count.
Watertown City Manager George Proakis described how local address review is complicated by accessory dwelling units, single-family to two-family conversions, and large multifamily projects, and urged continued state support for local governments doing this work. Dan Marrier of MassGIS then outlined the Massachusetts Master Address Database, explaining that it combines multiple sources, including E911, assessor, voter, and municipal data, to create a standardized residential address repository used for census preparation and other state functions. He said the database has helped improve census accuracy, including by updating more than one million Census Bureau address-point locations before 2020, and noted that local municipalities remain the final authority on addresses even as MassGIS standardizes and reconciles variants across the Commonwealth.
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- Uh, this measure makes the existing process even better, expanding the required hand counts and encouraging
- Um, I, I think this is a, a, a great thing to do, to have, have these hand-counted audits.
- In that count, the Secretary of State had selected 3 races and 8 precincts to be manually counted for
- from the electronically tabulated results from the central count accumulator to conduct the manual count
- This also standardizes our pre-election audit, so it goes hand in hand with the bill we just heard, um
CA
California 2025-2026 Regular Session
Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee Jun 24th, 2026
Budget and Fiscal Review
Transcript Highlights:
- And similarly with the treatment of reserves today, we count that the state counts them against the deposit
- , but then doesn't count them when they are withdrawn.
- And similarly with the treatment of reserves today, we count that the state counts them against the deposit
- , but then doesn't count them when they are withdrawn.
- , but when it comes out, to count toward Gann.
MN
Minnesota 2025 1st Special Session
House Elections Finance and Government Operations Committee 2/10/25
Elections Finance and Government Operations
Transcript Highlights:
- Precincts are randomly drawn to be included in a public hand count audit for the races of president,
- The hand count results are compared with the results from the machine counts of ballots cast on Election
- The results from the hand count cannot deviate from the machine count by the thresholds outlined in statute
- cout cannot deviate from the hand cout cannot deviate from the machine<00:55:26.480>
count <00 - ><00:55:44.839>
in <00:55:44.960>2024 <00:55:45.839>the counted by hand and again
Summary:
The Minnesota House Elections Finance and Government Operations Committee met to begin its session with member and staff introductions, then heard an overview from Secretary of State Steve Simon and elections director Paul Linnell on the state’s elections administration and budget needs. Simon said the office’s committee-jurisdiction budget request was for the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) election security grant match: Minnesota received about $1 million in federal funds in 2024 and needs a $200,000 state match to unlock the money for election security navigator work. He also previewed the office’s broader presentation on the 2024 election, outreach efforts, and election security.
Simon described the 2024 election cycle as successful, saying his administrative goals were high turnout and low drama. He reported that Minnesota had very high turnout in the November election, with more than 3.27 million ballots cast and about 76.4% turnout, and noted that more than 1.3 million voters cast ballots before Election Day. He also highlighted outreach and accessibility efforts, including the Students Voting Program, Youth Day at the Capitol, National Voter Registration Day activities, expanded online voter tools in additional languages, and work to inform eligible Minnesotans about the Restore the Vote law for people leaving prison. He emphasized that elections are a team effort carried out largely by counties, cities, townships, and election judges.
Linnell then explained the state’s election administration structure and responsibilities, including the Statewide Voter Registration System, candidate filing and election reporting systems, voting equipment certification, and post-election performance reviews. He said counties are central to voter registration updates and ballot preparation, and noted that in 2024 there were a handful of counties with ballot errors that required court action, with a vendor process change identified as a contributing factor. Committee members asked for more detail on the number and identity of the affected counties. No votes or formal committee actions were taken during the portion of the meeting reflected in the transcript.
MN
Transcript Highlights:
- It's very difficult, almost impossible, to have somebody observe and do a hand count of a rank-choice
- <00:25:32.520>
counts <00:25:33.039>in just doing recounts and hand counts in just - doing recounts and hand counts in this<00:25:33.440>
case <00:25:34.120>very <00:25:34.679 - /c><00:25:39.000>
Choice <00:25:39.440>voting do a hand count of a rank Choice voting do - a hand count of a rank Choice voting and<00:25:40.840>
and <00:25:40.960>so <00:25:41.159
MA
Massachusetts 2025-2026 Regular Session
Senate Committee on the Census Jun 21st, 2026 at 09:30 am
Senate Committee on the Census
Transcript Highlights:
- And so we have folks who are involved in the census count in 2020 and in the efforts to expand that count
- in hand with trusted organizations who serve these residents on a counts, a move that threatens equitable
- in hand with trusted organizations who serve these residents on a ...and work hand in hand with trusted
- working on complete count, specifically within hard-to-count populations, managing those funds.
- Will the school count them?
Summary:
The Senate Committee on the Census held an early planning hearing on how Massachusetts can maximize participation in the 2030 census, with Chair Will Brownsberger and Vice Chair Rebecca Rausch emphasizing the need to start well in advance. The first panel, made up of leaders from the Massachusetts Voter Table, MassVOTE, MIRA, and MESA, stressed that grassroots community organizations are trusted messengers and should be funded early to do multilingual outreach, training, and direct assistance in hard-to-count communities. They described lessons from 2020, including the shift to internet response, reduced federal census infrastructure, the importance of coordinated statewide networks, and the need to begin messaging several years before Census Day because building trust and staffing outreach takes time.
Panelists repeatedly warned that immigrant communities are facing heightened fear because of federal immigration enforcement and the possibility of a citizenship question or other federal changes, making census participation more difficult. They said 2020 funding arrived too late to fully staff and train outreach teams before the pandemic, and argued that future resources should be deployed earlier and more flexibly. In response to committee questions, they estimated Massachusetts should invest roughly $8 million to $10 million or more in state census outreach, with one proposed model of about $3 million to $5 million at the start, additional funding in the middle years, and a larger final push closer to 2030. They also suggested that funding should support communications infrastructure, translation, social media and ethnic media outreach, and possibly a permanent complete count structure or trust fund to preserve institutional knowledge.
A second panel from Common Cause Massachusetts and the ACLU of Massachusetts echoed the call for stronger, earlier investment and stronger privacy protections. They urged the legislature to expand existing census line items, consider a trust fund or other dedicated funding stream, and coordinate census outreach with other state programs that already work through trusted community messengers. The ACLU testimony focused on racial inequities in census counts and warned that federal efforts to exclude non-citizens or add a citizenship question would deepen distrust and undercount immigrant communities. Committee members asked about the 2020 overcount/undercount results, funding levels, timing of grant distribution, and whether census outreach should be routed through the Secretary of the Commonwealth or other state mechanisms; no votes were taken, and the hearing moved on to a later panel on immigrant-community outreach.
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- And when you're done, if you can hand that to the assistant to be, uh, handed out.
- Um, we have provisions in law that that restrict when counting can occur, and right now counting can't
- We want to make sure that every vote counts.
- This would count the same as an undervote.
- Encouraging further reform to make NOTA count.
NH
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- It changes the name of the section to hand count 11. Audit in Chapter 127.
- It requires early voting. ballot boards to perform the hand count.
- or in this case what's called the post-election hand count audit.
- We're not opposed to the limited hand-counting audits.
- methods, but we have found hand-counting to be an incredibly inaccurate method of counting ballots on
Bills:
SB16, SB76, SB310, SB311, SB396, SB505, SB827, SB964, SB1209, SB1210, SB1386, SB1470, SB2035, SJR37, SB 16
Keywords:
voter registration, proof of citizenship, Election Code, criminal offenses, limited federal ballot, transportation, infrastructure, funding, public safety, state regulation, election, polling places, voter access, state oversight, electronic voting, voting, polling place, elections, countywide program, election integrity
TX
Transcript Highlights:
- That ballot was not counted at the Central Counting Station.
- Just doing a hand count doesn't tell you anything at all. No.
- So if we did this count and we had a single in-person voting period that... ...count and we had a single
- count of what happened.
- count of those ballots at that location.
Bills:
HB223
Keywords:
municipal budget, county budget, local government finance, spending cap, expenditure limit, inflation plus population growth, taxpayer impact statement, budget transparency, property tax, fees, Legislative Budget Board, voter approval, disaster spending, fiscal restraint, Texas Local Government Code, city budget, county expenditures
Summary:
The Committee on State Affairs heard several House bills, with most measures left pending after testimony and later taken up in a batch of votes. Early in the meeting, HB 5624 on liability protections for motocross/off-road vehicle tracks, HB 223 on requiring competitive procurement for municipal lobbying contracts, HB 3709 on post-election audit procedures, and HB 5081 on protecting personal information of judicial officers and court staff were all discussed and left pending after testimony. Witnesses on HB 223 supported greater transparency in municipal lobbying contracts. HB 3709 drew sharp opposition from an election integrity advocate who argued the bill would reduce precinct-level granularity and make it harder to detect ballot errors, while a Secretary of State resource witness said the bill would simplify and standardize the audit process by location. HB 5081 received strong support from court administration and a district judge who described prior threats and an attack tied to publicly available personal information.
The committee also heard HB 3546 on allowing school districts to move elections to November, HB 493 on barring certain felony offenders from serving as poll watchers, HB 5115 on increasing penalties for election fraud and related conduct, HB 4081 on trade secret filing procedures, HB 3909 on limiting restrictions on wireless devices at polling places, HB 2702 on limiting gubernatorial closure authority for certain veterans organizations during pandemics, HB 119 on foreign adversary lobbying, and HB 5138 on the Attorney General’s authority to prosecute election crimes. Several of these bills were explained with committee substitutes and then left pending before final action. Testimony on HB 493 and HB 5115 came from an election integrity advocate who supported both bills, saying the poll watcher restriction was appropriately narrowed and that the election fraud bill would help address invalid votes and refusal to count valid votes.
Later, the committee took up pending business and voted out a large number of bills, generally along party lines or with broad support. HB 186 on minors’ social media use, HB 229, HB 2885, HB 3909 as substituted, HB 4285, HB 1661, HB 2820, HB 3181, HB 4157, HB 223, HB 521, HB 640, HB 1234, HB 2253, HB 2294, HB 3053, HB 3697 as substituted, HB 4281, HB 4463, HB 4995, HB 5081 as substituted, HB 5624 as substituted, HB 119 as substituted, HB 3225, HB 5138 as substituted, HB 5115, HB 481 as substituted, HB 3546, HB 493, and HB 4145 were reported favorably to the full Senate, with several also placed on the local and uncontested calendar. The committee also adopted committee substitutes for multiple bills, including HB 3909, HB 5081, HB 5624, HB 119, HB 5138, and HB 481. At the end, the chair noted another committee meeting would likely be needed before deadlines, possibly on a weekend, and recessed the committee subject to the call of the chair.