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Actual Vote in Arkansas

Poll tapes posted inside, or at closing time only

Information current as of October 2026

This page explains how to use the Actual Vote app in Arkansas for the next election. New to Actual Vote? Start here to learn what it is and why it matters.

Arkansas requires posting by statute, statewide, inside the polling room, and the close is open to the public. One copy of each machine's completed return record “shall be posted upon the wall of the polling room for all to see” (Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-527), signed by every poll worker present, and “after the polls have been closed, the counting of votes shall be open to the public” (§ 7-5-316(a)). The State Board of Election Commissioners' 2026 poll worker guide makes wall-posting a closing checklist step and says the production of the tabulator results tapes is “open to the public and to any authorized poll watchers to observe.” So you can be there at the 7:30 p.m. close and video-record the posted tape with the Actual Vote app. Neither the law nor the guide addresses photography, so ask the poll judge before filming. The morning zero tape is also posted by law, and at the rare hand-count site a certificate of election is posted outside the building.

Your participation is powerful: you join a nationwide team whose recordings get compared, tape-by-tape, against the officially reported results — an independent check on vote reporting, which is vulnerable to error and fraud. We haven’t published an Actual Vote analysis from Arkansas yet, but see what a team achieved in the 2024 North Carolina primary. The process is legal and next-to-impossible to abuse for partisan gain: everything on a poll tape is already public.

Poll closing time in Arkansas: 7:30 p.m. Anyone still in line at closing time is entitled to vote, so the closing procedure — and the tape — can run later.

Get the app How Actual Vote works See an example analysis

This information was compiled using AI-assisted internet research along with some calls to election offices and word-of-mouth tips. It reflects America Counts’s best knowledge of how to access poll tapes in Arkansas as of October 2026, but it cannot be guaranteed 100% accurate. The best way to be sure about accessing poll tapes in your area is to call your local elections office and ask — see below for ready-to-use scripts.

If your experience or knowledge of poll-tape procedure in Arkansas is different from what we show here, please contact us and let us know — we update these pages as we learn more.

Your ways to participate in Arkansas

See how the six ways to help compare →

  1. 1

    Record posted tapes at polling placesNot available in Arkansas

    Arkansas doesn’t post the tape outside the polling place, so the election-night route is being there at the close (use case 2).

  2. 2

    Be there at the close and record the posted tape

    Arkansas law requires one copy of each machine’s results to be posted on the wall of the polling room “for all to see,” and after the polls close, the counting of votes is open to the public. The State Board’s poll worker guide says the same for printing the results tapes. Be there at the 7:30 p.m. close, watch the tapes print, and record the posted copy with the Actual Vote app. Neither the law nor the guide addresses filming, so ask the poll judge first. Realistically about one location a night.

    See a detailed example of how to make a plan to visit polling places on election night based in Broward County, Florida.

  3. 3

    Record early-voting tapes

    Arkansas canvasses early-voting machines on election night, at a time and place the county board of election commissioners announces in its public notice, and no earlier than 7:30 p.m. (A.C.A. § 7-5-413). “The processing and counting of absentee and early votes is open to the public” (A.C.A. § 7-5-416), and officials may not stop people recording in a place open to the public (A.C.A. § 21-1-106, quoted in the 2024 county board manual). In 2024 about 72% of ballots were cast early in person (EAC election survey). Call your county elections office ahead of time and ask where and when the early-voting tapes will be printed, and whether you may observe and video-record them. If they don’t have a plan to show them, you can politely ask them to display the tapes.

    See a detailed example of recording early-voting tapes, based on Cobb County, Georgia.

  4. 4

    Become a poll worker or observer

    Working the polls or serving as an appointed observer puts you right at the source — the earliest point in the chain of custody, and the clearest view of the count and the tape.

    See more details about Actual Vote for poll workers or observers.

    Sign up to be a poll worker →

  5. 5

    Visit or book an appointment at your county elections office

    Election offices can often provide many precincts’ tapes at once — a great way to cover a whole county on your own schedule.

    Email/phone script — book an appointment at your Arkansas county elections office
    To: [your county] County elections office
    Re: Appointment to view and record precinct results tapes

    Hello, and thank you for your work. My name is [name]. My friends and I use Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — we video-record poll tapes and compare them to the official results as an independent double-check.

    We’d like to request an appointment to view and video-record the certified precinct results tapes (summary statements) from the [date] election — Election Day, absentee/by-mail, and early voting — for [all precincts / the following precincts: ____]. [Preferred date and window] would work, but we’re flexible and happy to follow any rules your office sets.

    Everything on these tapes is public records under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (Ark. Code Ann. § 25-19-105), and already public, so all we’d need is the tapes and a place to work. Thank you for considering it. — [name], [contact]

    Offices are busiest right before certification — offering a flexible window (and to start with a few precincts) makes a yes easier. See the full worked example for more.

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

  6. 6

    File a public-records request for poll-tape images

    Poll tapes are public records under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. You can request digital copies by precinct and voting method — available in every state, though it captures the tapes later in the chain of custody.

    Public-records request email — Arkansas poll-tape images
    To: [your county] County elections office
    Re: Public records request — [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election] results tapes, [your county] County

    Dear [County] County Elections,

    Under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, Ark. Code Ann. § 25-19-105, I'm requesting copies of public election data — specifically the precinct results tapes (also called "poll tapes" or "completed return records") that Arkansas law requires be posted on the wall of each polling room, signed by the poll workers present, meeting the following criteria:

    • From Arkansas's [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election]
    • From all precincts in [your county] County
    • For each voting method that produced a results tape — Election Day (in-person precinct) and, if tabulated separately, Absentee/Early Voting counted by the county board
    • If any precinct in the county hand-counted rather than used a machine, please also include the certificate of election posted outside that site
    • The tapes/statements showing candidate-by-candidate vote totals — I don't need the zero or configuration tapes (which by law are also posted), though including them is fine
    • If for any combination above no ballots were cast (so no tape was printed), simply omit it

    Digital scans (emailed or via a download link, in any common format such as .pdf or .jpg) would be ideal; physical copies for pickup or mail are also fine. These are public records, and the totals they show are already in the official published results. They'll be used for legitimate, non-partisan vote-reporting auditing with Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — you can see exactly how it works, and why it's non-partisan, at Start Here.

    If you must redact anything beyond precinct name, voting method, and results totals, please go ahead. If you deny any part of this request, please cite the specific exemption and let me know the appeal options under the law. Please also tell me of any fee in advance — I request a fee waiver, as this analysis is in the public interest, contributes to election transparency, and is not for any commercial purpose.

    Because our analysis is most useful before results are certified, I'd be grateful for the data within about a week if possible; if you expect a delay, just let me know when to expect it.

    Thank you for considering this request. — [name], [email/phone]

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

Example Actual Vote Recordings

We don’t have any recordings from Arkansas yet — you could be the first! Here are some example poll tape videos by Actual Vote users in other states. America Counts compares the vote totals on each poll tape video to the official results to double-check the accuracy of the vote reporting. See this report from North Carolina in 2022 for an example.

Recordings live in the public Actual Vote Video Archive.

How we know this — and how you can check it

This reflects America Counts’s primary-source review of Arkansas’s election statutes and Secretary of State guidance, most recently updated in October 2026; the summary at the top of this page and the early-voting card link the provisions it relies on. Procedures can still vary locally, so the surest way to confirm what applies at your polling place or elections office is to call them directly. Found something different? Tell us and we’ll verify it and fix the page.

Find your county's election website

County sites carry polling locations and local contact information. Search "[your county], Arkansas elections" if a link 404s.

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Join the nationwide team independently double-checking how votes are reported — starting in Arkansas.

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