HAND-COUNT PROJECTOR TOOL: a starting point for your county

Increasing your county's current number of registered voters in anticipation for new voters, based on historical growth rates between relevant elections. 

Projecting the number of ballots to be counted based on historical turnout trends for similar elections.

Determining the likely percentage of expected voters during Early Voting based on historical trends in similar elections.

Determining the likely percentage of expected voters on Election Day based on historical trends in similar elections.

Determining the likely number of expected Absentee voters based on historical trends in similar elections.

The number of teams needed to hand count all Early Voting Ballots in 10hrs, and number of teams needed to hand count all Election Day ballots by 1am.

Without seeking names and voter info, obtaining these number will help determine how many voters will vote in a given polling location.

Assigning precincts to the nearest polling locations will allow counties to cast ballots by precinct using existing polling places.

Using Provisional Ballots is mandated by Federal Law. No voter requesting a ballot may be turned away, and this concept satisfies state-level countywide access requirements. 

Without turning any voter away, we can assign voters to polling locations based on their precinct, encourage voting in our assigned polling locations, while allowing voters to cast ballots provisionally at any other location.

Regardless of whether we cast ballots countywide or by precinct, we are bound by federal law to honor the use of provisional ballots.

Strict regulations on ballot box design require use of approved ballot boxes, which the county owns. These are the ballot boxes 

These ballot boxes can come with attached scanner/tabulators, which TBTR Strategies recommends declining the use of when switching to a hand-counted election.

ePoll Books will be used only to alert the County to who has voted, but hard-copy PAPER POLL BOOKS will be delivered from the County to each polling location prior to the start of the election.

These PAPER POLL BOOKS will be used to determine who gets a REGULAR BALLOT and who gets a PROVISIONAL BALLOT.

TBTR Strategies recommends for all counties using HART InterCivics Verity Voting System, or a system with similarly legible ballots (as opposed to the small font found on ES&S ballots), that they hand-count the Printed Vote Records (PVRs) printed from the Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs).

This strategy is meant to facilitate the switch from a scanner/tabulator to a hand-counted method, without costing the county more money than what is allocated for a given election.

This shift, from waiting on the County to tell us who won, to delivering COUNTED BALLOTS and COMPLETE PRECINCT RETURNS to the County for immediate reporting, is small but fundamental shift in election security.

Casting ballots by precinct restores both AUDITABILITY and BALLOT SECRECY, while hand-counting those ballots on-location, and adding those totals to the polling location paperwork, will strenghten the CHAIN OF CUSTODY of elections.

The method endorsed for NATIONAL APPLICATION is the ECHO HAND-COUNT METHOD  

Created by Elizabeth Baron in Travis County, Texas, the ECHO Hand-Count Method is an adaptable, auditable, clean, easy, modern, simple and tested method for hand-counting ballots of all kinds.

Elizabeth has assisted counties both small and large in Texas visualize how a hand-counted election could look in their county.  Click the button below to visit her website and learn more about the ECHO Hand-Count Method!