MONTGOMERY — The Alabama House Ways and Means General Fund Committee voted on Tuesday to delay voting on substituted legislation requiring county probate judges to conduct mandatory ballot audits after every county and statewide election.
House Bill 259 (HB259), sponsored by State Rep. Debbie Wood (R-Valley), would require the probate judge of each county to conduct a post-election audit after every county and statewide general election to determine the accuracy of the originally reported results of the election.
Wood presented the bill before the committee, offering an amended version. She said it would be more agreeable to probate judges in the state, who were reportedly skeptical of the original legislation.
"Thank goodness we had the week off because I had the opportunity to work with probate judges across the state again and strengthen our bill, and I do think that we have met some of their concerns and we are happy," Wood said.
She continued, "I know how old those tabulators are. Those tabulators count your votes. We do paper voting in the state of Alabama, but we still have a machine that counts those. We test those machines, but you know yourself, with any machine that you operate, they can stop, they can mess up, and they can be incorrect. So what this bill attempts to do is to make sure that those tabulators are operating correctly. Are they calculating our votes the right way? So, some of the machines are over 20 years old in our state. It's also time for us to have a conversation as to, when are we going to replace those and how do we do it. So, I'm hoping that this bill will start that conversation."
The bill would require the probate judge to order a post-election manual audit after every county and statewide general election consisting of a manual tally of all ballots in at least one randomly selected precinct for one countywide or statewide race, chosen randomly by the canvassing board.
The substituted bill also requires the audit to occur outside of the 31 days allowed for election contests.
Another aspect of the amended bill is the counting of the audited ballots. Initially, the bill stated that the audit would be hand-counted. According to Wood, the new version allows audits to be conducted with a "clean" tabulator that was not used in any actual election.
According to Wood, discrepancies will be reported to the Secretary of State, who will determine the next step. Likewise, if the audit results name a winner other than the person initially certified, the outcome shall constitute grounds for an election contest.
State Rep. Andy Whitt (R-Harvest) asked Wood what it would cost for a county to conduct the post-election audit. Wood pointed to the fiscal note on the bill, which estimates a $525 per-county cost, totaling $35,000 across all 67 counties.
After the committee adopted the substitute, State Rep. Pebblin Warren (D-Tuskegee) motioned to carry the bill over until next week so members had a chance to talk to their local probate judges. The motion passed with only one "nay" vote.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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