Lawyers representing Alabama citizens may file a lawsuit within days to preserve electronic images of every paper ballot cast in next week’s high-profile special U.S. Senate election between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore. As of late Tuesday, the lawyers were still in talks with Alabama election officials, urging them not only to preserve all election records—a requirement under federal law—but to ensure the electronic scanners that will read and count the ink-marked paper ballots are properly programmed to capture the digital ballot images. “There are Alabama voters who have come forth seeking to enforce the federal requirement that all election materials be preserved for 22 months after the election,” said Chris Sautter, attorney for the Alabama voters. “It’s our understanding, having talked to state officials, that they preserve only the digital ballot images of the write-in ballots.”
“It’s clearly good election administration. My understanding is that this [image-capture] feature was created by an executive at ES&S [a voting machine maker], in part, to help facilitate recounts, and facilitate counting of ballots,” Sautter said. “So it’s a good device. It’s partisan neutral. It’s a feature that election officials should welcome.”
… “There’s a number of reasons, aside from there’s a law that requires it,” he said. “That’s the first thing. These are election materials. So the law requires that they preserve all election materials. It’s not for the state to second-guess whether or not there’s a good reason to preserve, or not preserve, any type of election material. They have to preserve all of them. They can’t really pick and choose.”
Full Article: Preserving Real Ballot Integrity In Alabama.