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Marketplace All-in-One

In most voting precincts, no-tech ballot counting is a nonstarter

Marketplace All-in-One

Marketplace

News, Business

4.51.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2024

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today we’re talking about voting tech and the push in some areas to move away from machines and go back to hand counting ballots. A legal battle is brewing in Georgia over a new rule requiring ballots be hand counted on election night to ensure the tally matches electronic records. Arizona has added a similar requirement. The issue has become particularly mired in misinformation in recent years, with some election deniers questioning the security of the tech used in our elections. While some may believe hand counts are more accurate, the number of jurisdictions across the country relying on them on election night has been steadily dropping. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Pam Smith, president and CEO of the nonpartisan organization Verified Voting, about why the practice of counting ballots by hand is waning.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi I'm Kai Rizdahl the host of How We Survive

0:03.4

It's a podcast from Marketplace. In 1986, before I was a journalist,

0:08.3

I was flying for the Navy.

0:09.7

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

0:14.4

It was the cold war, and my first deployments were intercepting Russian bombers.

0:18.6

Today, though, there's another threat out there, climate change.

0:22.5

This could be the warmest year on record.

0:24.6

Climate change is here.

0:25.7

Temperatures here are warming faster than anywhere on Earth.

0:29.5

And while the threat seems new,

0:31.6

the Pentagon's been funding studies on climate change since the 1950s.

0:35.9

I think we will put our troops and our forces at higher risk if we don't recognize the impact of climate change.

0:44.7

This season, we go to the front lines of the climate crisis

0:47.5

to see how the military is preparing for the threat.

0:51.0

Listen to how we survive,

0:52.3

wherever you get your podcasts.

0:55.0

Hand counting ballots probably isn't the best way to secure elections.

1:02.0

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Megan McCarty

1:06.0

Karino. Today we're talking about voting tech and the push by some to move away from it back to

1:22.3

hand-counting ballots. A legal battle is now brewing in

1:26.0

Georgia over a new rule requiring ballots be hand counted on election night to ensure the

1:32.2

tally matches electronic records.

...

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