A tech startup lets citizens audit elections with their smart phones

MIAMI - Aug. 20, 2020 - PRLog -- "Last March, the Broward County Citizen's Audit Committee used Actual Vote to take pictures of poll tapes" Daniel Wolf, CEO and Founder of Democracy Counts said in an interview today."When their numbers were compared with the 'official' numbers a 20% error rate was uncovered. If that goes uncorrected state-wide it's more than enough to flip the whole state's Nov. 3 election."

The introduction of voting machines subject to hacking, plus willful fake news and other outside influences on U.S. elections, has meant the accuracy of the vote count has become suspect. Democracy Counts provides a solution.

The result is Democracy Counts, Inc., a nonpartisan 501(c) 3 tech startup in San Diego, California. "What we offer, "Wolf explained, "are the tools and processes regular folks can use to audits of elections independently."

He went then described the company's first app, Actual Vote, which lets concerned people take pictures of poll tapes, a polling places' official record of the vote that happened there that day. These tapes are, in most jurisdictions, mandated to be posted where the public can see them. They are part of the official record. Once taken, the pictures are uploaded to secure servers and held there until they can be compared with the 'official' vote count announced from a central location, typically the Board of Elections office. If there's a discrepancy in the number of votes or the way those votes are counted, and the 'official' tally, that difference must be explained or cured.

Of course, that election is over. What's different about it is that significant amounts of data were collected. That data is being analyzed right now to determine if any discrepancies have occurred. It may shed light on the 10 percent error rate from last March, or reveal that nothing's changed, which would point toward a problem.

"This signals a new era in election integrity," Wolf stated. "Whatever the results turn out to be, we've created a way for 'we the people' to provide audit elections. Ultimately this could return democracy to its original intention of true, honest and open representation."

Actual Vote, for free at the Apple Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/actual-vote/id1499733603?mt=8) and for Android phones at no cost through a special beta testing link (https://install.appcenter.ms/orgs/democracy-counts/apps/a...). Democracy Counts can be found at: www.democracycounts.org