Q: Can I demand to see the results of a ballot scan after voting?
I live in Florida. We have paper ballots that are scanned by a machine when submitted. During the midterm elections, I asked the person administering the scanning machine if I could see the electronic results after I submitted my paper ballot. There had been several reports nation-wide of voting machines malfunctioning; changing peoples votes. I wanted to confirm that the machine recorded my vote correctly, but was simply told "No" by the operator.
Do I have a right to demand confirmation that my vote was recorded properly, and, if not, would I have a case if I sued to have that right?
A: The poll workers cannot access the votes, and there would be no way to confirm how you voted, since all votes are anonymous. You can check ALL recorded votes by submitting a public records request to your county elections department. After a certain point in time, all of those paper ballots will become part of the public records.
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