Hand-to-eye count a measure to fight election fraud

A new safeguard has been put in place by Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams in an effort to combat misinformation regarding election fraud.

Following the Nov. 5 general election, a random county will be selected to do a hand-to-eye recount of a random machine and random race, all of which will be selected by the Secretary of State’s office.

The statute, 117.383, states in part:

To validate the accuracy and fidelity of the vote tabulation, the Secretary of State or his or her designee shall randomly select, in all counties of the Commonwealth, one (1) ballot scanner and one (1) race tabulated on that scanner for a hand-to-eye recount to be performed by each county board of elections or its designee...

A minimum of two (2) qualified poll workers, not of the same political party, shall be selected from lists of available volunteers, sworn in by the county board of elections or its designee to do the hand-to-eye recount, and compensated at the local poll worker rate. A video recording device shall be used for recording the event and it may be streamed for public internet viewing;

Once the hand-to-eye recount is completed, each volunteer shall add up the tally marks for each candidate, write down a total number of votes for each candidate, and sign the tally sheet. The county board of elections or its  designee shall verify if the two (2) separate hand-to-eye tallies match. If the two (2) hand-to-eye tallies do not match each other, the process must be repeated until the totals are matching. Once this occurs, the county board of elections or its designee shall also verify the tallies by signing each tally sheet. Then, the ballots must be returned to the ballot box and resealed in the presence of the county board of elections or its designee and public witnesses

A complete copy of the statute can be viewed at https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=55335

The hand-to-eye count in Knox County will take place on Thursday, November 7 at 9 a.m. in the Knox County Courthouse. The procedure will be dually recorded and livestreamed to The Mountain Advocate’s Facebook page.