New Tennessee law requires 'voter-verifiable paper audit trail' to improve election integrity

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee has many checks and balances to ensure the state has accurate and trustworthy elections, including a law that took effect in Jan. 2024 that requires election commissions to produce voter-verifiable paper audit trails.

The law, which passed unanimously in 2022 and went into effect this year, mandates every county election commission to produce a “voter-verifiable paper audit trail,” which is a paper record that is marked either manually by the voter, or by a machine that the voter can check for accuracy before casting their vote. The 61 counties that did not have the machines capable of the audit were given upgraded ones by the state.

“Voter integrity in many states has been in question. In Tennessee, we’ve done a very good job here but we could always do better,” Sen. Ed Jackson (R-Jackson), the bill’s sponsor said to lawmakers on the Senate floor before the bill passed in 2022.

“The voters need to feel confident that when they leave the polling place their vote counted exactly the way they wanted it to be counted,” Jeff Roberts, Davidson County’s Administrator of Elections said.



https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/new-tn-law-aims-to-strengthen-election-security/