BATON ROUGE, La. — In Louisiana’s northwest corner, a candidate for parish sheriff demanded a recount Wednesday after losing by one vote in an election in which more than 43,000 people cast ballots.
The tight race puts a spotlight on Louisiana’s recount process and its outdated voting machines, which fail to provide an auditable paper trail that experts say is critical to ensuring election results are accurate. States’ recount ability has proven extremely important, especially after the 2020 presidential election, when multiple battleground states conducted recounts and reviews to confirm President Joe Biden’s victory.
“This extraordinarily narrow margin… absolutely requires a manual recount to protect the integrity of our democratic process and to ensure that we respect the will of the people,” said John Nickelson, the Republican candidate who trailed by one vote. last week’s elections. Caddo Parish Sheriff, posted on social media Wednesday.
Henry Whitehorn, the Democrat who won the sheriff’s runoff election, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Caddo Clerk Mike Spence said he has seen close races in his 46 years of experience, but none with such a large number of voters. Spence said he hopes this will teach residents that every vote matters.
When the recount takes place Monday, only absentee ballots will be counted again and checked for errors. But they represent only about 17% of the total votes in the second round. Absentee ballots are sent by mail and are the only auditable paper trail under Louisiana’s current voting system.
When it comes to the in-person ballots, which are paperless, a recount would be akin to hitting a refresh button.
“(Election officials) test the machines beforehand and they test the machines afterwards, so it’s not blind faith going into this. … There are protections in place,” David Becker, a former attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division who works with election officials through the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation. & Research said. “That said, a recount of a paperless ballot is essentially the same as pushing the button again. … You actually get another report on the table.”
Louisiana uses paperless, touchscreen voting machines purchased in 2005. Once the most modern voting technology, today Louisiana is the only place where they are still used statewide.
Election officials, including Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, have reiterated that the state’s elections are secure and that there are checks and balances in place to ensure election integrity. In addition, the state has received high marks for its election procedures, including from the legislative auditor in March.
However, the machines and the lack of a paper trail are often the target of criticism.
The ability to recount ballots proved important in the 2020 election, when many battleground states — including Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — conducted recounts or thorough reviews of election results.
Near Georgia, election officials recertified the state’s presidential election results after Donald Trump requested a recount of the roughly 5 million votes cast. Georgia, which had used paperless voting machines similar to Louisiana’s for two decades, purchased a new system shortly before the election. The current system, used by virtually every in-person voter in Georgia, prints a paper ballot with a human-readable summary and a QR code, a type of barcode, that is read by a scanner to count the votes.
“Can you imagine what would have happened in Georgia if they still had digital voting machines in 2020?” Becker asked.
Although Louisiana is seen as a reliably red state and not a swing state in the presidential races, election officials across the board agree it’s time for new machines.
“It’s important to be able to show your work and it’s important, for people’s confidence in the system, to know that there is control over the system,” said Becker.
Louisiana has been trying to replace the current machines for the past five years. But the ongoing process was postponed following allegations of manipulation of the bidding process.
Secretary of State-elect Nancy Landry, a Republican who takes office in January, said implementing a new voting system is a top priority. However, given the extensive bidding process and training, she said no new machines will be installed before the 2024 presidential election.