Idaho’s Ada County launched an election transparency tool, Ballot Verifier, in April 2024 which allows users to access every ballot cast in the county since 2022.
Ballot Verifier allows users to view contest results, images of ballots and voting records for over 680,000 ballots, according to the Ada County Elections Office.
The tool does not reveal voters’ personal information, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.
The program was pioneered by a Republican, Trent Tripple, who previously worked in the County Clerk’s office, according to The New York Times. (RELATED: Group Helped Push Thousands Of Fraudulent Ballots, According To Arizona Election Officials)
“I was tired of everybody questioning elections in Idaho,” Tripple told the outlet. “The idea is to get the vast majority of people back into this bucket of trusting elections.”
The 271,186 ballots cast in the county Nov. 5 will soon become publicly available on the website, according to the outlet.
Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane called the tool a “first of its kind” in an interview.
“It’s one of the first of its kind in the nation where they post every single image of every single ballot here in the county,” he said. “Not only do they post the image of the ballot so that if you wanna go hand-count and do your own tally, have it.”
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Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane “Ada County, just launched their ballot verifiers. They created a tool. It’s one of the first of its kind in the nation where they post every single image of every single ballot here in the county. Not… pic.twitter.com/0IUkYMyQ3e
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“I can’t even dream up how we can be more transparent than this,” Tripple told tech magazine WIRED. “There isn’t anything else that we have that the public cannot see.”
Ballot Verifier allows users to filter by ballot type and narrow the results to specific precincts, where they can view an image of every ballot counted. The images are presented alongside a “cast vote record,” or how many ballots the machine tabulated on election day, WIRED reported.
A side-by-side comparison can reportedly reveal any discrepancies. The data runs from the 2022 through May 2024 state primaries, according to the site. (RELATED: 18 Of 19 States Harris Won Appear To Share One Major Risk To Election Integrity)
Screenshot from Ada County’s Ballot Verifier: May 2024 Republican Primary
Before Ballot Verifier, residents were forced to make public records requests through the Clerk’s Office to obtain election data, according to the website. They would reportedly have to wait a few days and pay a fee to receive ballot information.
“Now, the general public can view and download all cast ballots at any time, as well as run their own ‘citizen count’ simply by visiting this tool,” the website states.
The software company which manages the program is Massachusetts-based Civera, according to The New York Times. It was already working with Idaho to manage election data and has partnered with other state and local governments, the outlet noted. (RELATED: Democrats To Formally Oppose GOP Effort To Block DC Law That Allows Non-Citizens To Vote: REPORT)
“The Ballot Verifier produced complete transparency and so much more,” Tripple said, according to Civera’s site. “I don’t know of a more powerful elections tool that places all data in the hands of citizens that is easier to use.”
Texas’s Tarrant County also used Ballot Verifier for the 2024 election. Its users can view data from the 2023 General Election through an August 2024 special election, according to its website.
Election security was a concern for many officials in 2024, ranging from ballot fraud to noncitizens voting.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
