Election integrity is not merely a demand citizens make of officials. It is work citizens must be willing to do. Use this checklist lawfully and honestly. Know your state law. Respect election workers. Document facts carefully. Do not make claims you cannot support.
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Before election season
- Identify the local election authority and the official responsible for elections in your county or jurisdiction.
- Find the election calendar, filing deadlines, registration deadlines, absentee deadlines, public testing dates, canvass dates, and certification deadlines.
- Ask how poll workers are recruited, trained, assigned, and supervised.
- Ask what citizen observation is allowed at each stage under state law.
- Ask how voter rolls are maintained, how duplicates are handled, how deceased voters are removed, and how address changes are processed.
- Ask what voting equipment is used, who owns it, who services it, what software or firmware is used, and when public logic and accuracy testing occurs.
- Ask whether hand-marked paper ballots are used and whether the paper ballot is the legal record of the vote.
- Ask how ballots are printed, stored, transported, secured, counted, reconciled, and retained.
- Ask for written procedures, not merely verbal assurances.
- Recruit citizens to serve as poll workers, election judges, watchers, challengers, observers, counting team members, or party representatives where permitted by law.
During voting
- Observe only where legally permitted and follow lawful instructions.
- Note whether voter identification procedures are followed consistently.
- Watch whether ballots, ballot stubs, spoiled ballots, provisional ballots, absentee ballots, and equipment are handled according to written procedures.
- Document incidents with time, place, names if known, and exact facts. Do not rely on rumor.
- Report concerns through the proper legal channel while the issue can still be corrected.
- Do not interfere with voters, election workers, or lawful election processes.
- Distinguish between a violation, a mistake, a misunderstanding, and something you simply do not yet understand.
Counting, canvassing, and certification
- Attend public counting, tabulation, canvass, and certification meetings where permitted.
- Ask how total ballots cast are reconciled with voter check-ins, poll books, absentee totals, provisional totals, and precinct reports.
- Ask how damaged ballots or ballots requiring duplication are handled and observed.
- Ask how write-ins, undervotes, overvotes, provisional ballots, and rejected ballots are handled.
- Ask whether post-election audits are conducted, whether they are public, and whether they are strong enough to detect outcome-changing errors.
- Ask when unofficial results become official and what steps occur before certification.
- Compare public reports with canvass documents and minutes.
- Preserve records, photos, notes, and public documents in an organized folder.
Questions for the local election authority
- What is the full chain of custody for ballots from printing through retention?
- Who has access to ballots, equipment, memory devices, poll books, and election management systems?
- Are any vendors, contractors, temporary workers, or outside organizations involved? What contracts govern their work?
- When are machines publicly tested, and what exactly does the test prove and not prove?
- What happens if machine totals, poll book totals, and ballot counts do not reconcile?
- What is the process for citizens to inspect public election records after the election?
- What records are available before certification, and what records are available only after certification?
- How are election worker political balance, training, and accountability handled?
- What would cause a recount, retabulation, hand count, or court challenge?
- What changes would make the process easier for ordinary citizens to observe and verify?
Citizen discipline
- Tell the truth even when the truth is less dramatic than suspicion.
- Do not accuse a person of wrongdoing without evidence.
- Do not publish private voter information.
- Do not confuse slow results with fraud unless evidence supports that claim.
- Praise officials who answer questions and improve transparency.
- Push for reforms that make elections simple, observable, paper-based, auditable, and worthy of trust.
From Appendix D of Keeping the Republic.
Also in the toolkit: local meeting checklist.
Never been to a meeting? Read what actually happens first.