Republican senator says granting access to digital ballot images and voting records would head off frivolous challenges.
Jen Fifield
Votebeat
Arizona state Sen. Ken Bennett is leading an effort to get $2 million into the state budget for a tool that could allow candidates to verify their election results, ballot by ballot. (Joshua Roberts – Pool via Getty Images)
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Candidates for election in Arizona would potentially be able to verify the results in their race, ballot by ballot, under a proposal likely to end up in this year’s state budget.
State Sen. Ken Bennett, who is leading the effort, says his fellow Republican lawmakers endorse designating $2 million that’s already set aside in the budget for election integrity efforts to support the creation or adoption of a tool that would allow for this type of analysis.
Bennett’s budget proposal comes after he has tried for two years to pass related bills. By designating money in the budget instead of trying to get a bill passed, Bennett is circumventing the typical way new laws are publicly vetted.
The tool would provide a sortable database including voter registration records; a list of voters who voted in each election; the digital image of each ballot cast; and a record of how machines counted those votes, known as the “cast vote record.” Those with access — it’s still up in the air who would have it — could check for themselves that only eligible voters voted, see images of completed ballots, and examine how the machines counted the votes.
