Resources
QUICK LINKS TO RESOURCES
FEDERAL AND STATE CONSTITUTIONS, NC ELECTION LAWS, ADMINISTRATIVE RULES, NUMBERED MEMOS
North Carolina State Constitution
North Carolina General Statutes index
Chapter 163 - Elections and Election Laws
Chapter 132 - Public Records
North Carolina Administrative Code Title 08 - Elections
NC Elections Systems Certification Program
Numbered Memos ftp site
NC State Board of Elections website NCSBE.gov
INFORMATION ABOUT ELECTION PROCESSES & BEST PRACTICES
NIST Election Process Portal (National Institute for Standards and Technology)
EAC - US Election Assistance Commission: 6 Tips for Conducting Election Audits
RECORDS REQUEST TEMPLATES
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Start by saying hello and thank you to the board and board staff.
“I am requesting to video-record (using Actual Vote app), the poll tapes from both early voting tabulators and absentee tabulators. I would like to do this during the Board of Elections meeting at 7:30pm on election night.
If the tapes will not be available to the public for viewing and video-recording on election night, please let me know what date/time they will be available. Thank you.” -
“I am requesting per NC public records law, to come in-person to inspect and image ALL original, signed poll tapes from election day, early voting, and absentee-by-mail voting - including the zero portion of each of the tapes from the______________ Election.
These are established public records in NC and nothing on the tapes are subject to redactions (post certification), including signatures.
Please do not destroy these tapes until you confirm with me via email that I have received the records and that the records released by the BOE are full and complete.
I will have a small group of trained people with me, many of whom have experience imaging these delicate records and all of whom are trained to handle these records. In order to be more efficient with everyone's time, we will have several volunteers working together using tables, small phone stands, and cell phones with a specially designed app that is just for imaging poll tapes and all volunteers will be using gloves when handling poll tapes.
Please let me know some good days and times that would be available for me to come in.
Thank you.” -
“I am requesting per NC public records law, digital copies of all poll worker manuals, including all levels of poll officials.
- Chief Judge manual
- Judge manual
- Poll Worker and Poll Assistant manual
These are established public records in NC and help the public to understand the process, which will lead to more confidence in elections. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.”
LEGAL RESOURCES
SMART Elections holds informational forums every 4th Tuesday of the month, 4pm PT | 7pm ET. See upcoming forums. Here’s a previous forum on voting machines What's Wrong With Our Voting Machines? | Ep. 22
SCRUTINEERS offers non-partisan observer training
INFORMATION ABOUT ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS
Free book download: Black Box Voting by Bev Harris
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Justice Department Issues Guidance on Federal Statutes Regarding Voting Methods and Post-Election “Audits”.
Cast Vote Records
All scanners/tabulators in NC have the ability to save ballot images, cast vote records & cast vote record databases. Most NC counties do not save ballot images (except for write-in votes).
When a ballot is scanned into a tabulator, a ballot image is created. The software inside the scanner allocates votes based on how it reads that ballot. This information is in the form of an electronic record, called a cast vote record or CVR.
All the CVRs are aggretated into a CVR database, essentially a spreadsheet that contains all the votes, undervotes, write-ins, totals for each candidate, etc.
Election administers in NC make changes to this database when they need to adjudicate a ballot, remove a voter who voted early, but then passed away before the election, sometimes a ballot is erroneously sent through the scanner and needs to be removed for legitimate reasons.
This CVR data (and ballot images) are readily available and released to the public right after the election in many states. These records do not compromise the secrecy of a person’s vote. Political campaigns find it useful for determining cross-over votes, since it shows how each ballot was marked - for all contests on the ballot. In states where the CVR is not released to the public (as a matter of course) political campaigns can only get the total number of votes per contest in each precinct. Having this extra CVR database data tremendously helps candidates who are given access to this information.
NIST: Special Publication 1500-103
Cast Vote Records Common Data Format
Specification, Version 1.0
“A CVR is an electronic record of a voter’s selections, with usually one CVR created per sheet (page) of a ballot. Election results are produced by tabulating the collection of CVRs, and audits can be done by comparisons of the paper ballots or paper records of voter selections against the CVRs.”
Logic & Accuracy Testing
NCSBE Video of Durham, NC LAT testing
In NC voting equipment such as the scanners/tabulators used to count votes and machines used to mark the voter’s ballot, called ballot marking devices (BMD) are tested prior to each election.
Logic & accuracy tests only check for functionality and do not prove that a machine used to count votes or mark ballots will work properly on election day. It is still an important step in preparing for an election even though it cannot disprove hacking, bugs, or computer malfunctions on election day. L&As test can detect some configuration or calibration issues, but cannot show that the equipment will perform without issue on election day.
Once testing is complete, it is critical that all data ports are sealed with serial-numbered-tamper-evident devices/seals and that there is a complete and in-tact chain of custody log. In many US jurisdictions, these tests are available for the public to view in person or on live video. Testing, moving and storage of election materials are broadcast via online video feed available to the public 24/7/365. Video of L&A testing is not available in NC.
NC procedures for Logic & Accuracy Testing are outlined in the North Carolina State Topical Elections Processes and Procedures (STEPPS) manual. The link on NCSBE is not working and Transparent Elections NC has been unable to obtain a copy through a public records request.
NCAC 04 .0307 TESTING OF VOTING SYSTEM BEFORE USE IN AN ELECTION
UOCAVA Voting
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act or “UOCAVA” requires states to allow certain voters who are absent from their county of residence to have special rights that provide an expedited means for them to register and vote by mail-in absentee ballot. In order to qualify under the provisions of UOCAVA in this state, a voter must be a legal resident of North Carolina. Citizens covered by UOCAVA include:
A member of the active or reserve components of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard of the United States who is on active duty.
A member of the Merchant Marine, the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service, or the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States.
A member of the National Guard or State militia unit who is on activated status.
A spouse or dependent of a uniformed services member as listed above.
U.S. citizens residing outside the United States.
For more information for UOCAVA Voters, please visit the State Board of Elections website by clicking HERE
Link to Federal Voting Assistance Program
FVAP.gov
Evidence Based Elections
Georgetown Law Technology Review
EVIDENCE-BASED ELECTIONS: CREATE A MEANINGFUL PAPER TRAIL, THEN AUDIT
Andrew W. Appel & Philip B. Stark
“The vulnerability of computers to hacking is well understood. Modern computer systems, including voting machines, have many layers of software, comprising millions of lines of computer code; there are thousands of bugs in that code. Some of those bugs are security vulnerabilities that permit attackers to modify or replace the software in the upper layers, so we can never be sure that the legitimate vote-counting software or the vote-marking user interface is actually the software running on election day.
One might think, “our voting machines are never connected to the Internet, so hackers cannot get to them.” But all voting machines need to be programmed for each new election: They need a “ballot-definition file” with the contests and candidate names for each election, and lists of the contests different voters are eligible to vote in. This programming is typically done via removable media such as a USB thumb drive or a memory card. Vote-stealing malware can piggyback on removable media and infect voting machines— even machines with no network connection.”
Paper in Georgetown Law Technology Review: Evidence Based Elections by Andrew Appel & Phillip Stark
Royal Statistical Society article about evidence based elections by Mark Lindeman.
Risk-limiting Audits
North Carolina conducted RLA pilots for a few counties following the 2020 General Election.
Only the Presidential race and no other races will be audited for the General election. Hand eye audits of the Presidential race is performed in only 2 precincts per county - this does not take into account the size of the county. This sample is limited in size and scope. The precincts are selected at random following the election and then counties have over a week to prepare for the audit.
Risk-limiting audits are what experts recommend for ensuring, with some level of confidence, that the correct winner(s) of of an election were correctly identified. It involves performing a hand-eye audit of a random sample of ballots (# is dependent on the % victory margin). The sample size of ballots may be a smaller than the number than would otherwise be audited in each precinct, but because the sample is spread out across all precincts in a county, it provides a more complete audit.
https://verifiedvoting.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RLA-Methods.pdf
Risklimitingaudits.org is a collaborative documentation project, coordinated by folks at VotingWorks. Many resources about RLAs can be found here.