Example: Recording Early-Voting Tapes

In many states most ballots are now cast before election day: in 2024, in-person early voting was about 72% of all ballots in Arkansas and 60% in New Mexico. Election-day tapes alone miss those votes. Early-voting tapes work differently from election-day tapes, so they need their own plan.

How early-voting tapes work

Early-voting tabulators usually store votes for the whole early-voting period and print one results tape per machine after polls close on election day. Almost no state prints results when early voting ends, and many make early release a crime. Where the tapes print varies by state and county: at the early-voting site or vote center, at the county elections office, or at a central count. In some states early votes simply appear on the polling-place tape, and in all-mail states there’s no early-voting tape at all.

Each tape covers one machine, and that machine counted voters from many precincts. So two things matter that don’t for election-day tapes: record every machine’s tape at a site, and get official results by tabulator to compare them with.

Use case 3 on your state’s page says what we know about your state, with sources. Sometimes the honest answer is that we don’t know yet, which is why the first step is always a phone call.

What happened in Cobb County, Georgia

In the June 16, 2026 primary runoff, Georgia’s rules kept the advance-voting memory cards in the scanners until polls closed. That night, the advance-voting tapes were on display at the Cobb County elections office. One volunteer video-recorded 18 of them there in about half an hour: 18 of the county’s 21 advance-voting tabulators, covering about 87% of the county’s advance ballots.

Georgia publishes advance votes by each voter’s home precinct, not by tabulator, so the tapes couldn’t be checked against the published results. A public-records request for results grouped by tabulator, which the county answered the same day, closed that gap. All 172 comparisons, covering 73,953 votes, matched exactly. Read the full Cobb County report.

One lesson: two of the three tabulators we missed were at sites we did record. Count the machines at each site and make sure you have a tape from every one.

Step 1: Call ahead

A week or two before election day, call your county elections office:

Hi, my name is [name]. I’m a user of Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization. Volunteers record poll tapes and compare them to the official results as an independent double-check. I’d like to plan for the early-voting tapes in [county]. On election night, where and when will the early-voting tabulators print their results tapes? Will a copy be posted or shown, and may I observe and video-record them?

If they don’t have a plan to show the tapes, you can politely ask them to display them, for example by posting one signed copy from each machine where the public can see it, as Georgia’s rule and Rhode Island’s new early-voting rule provide. If what they tell you differs from your state’s page, tell us.

Step 2: Be there on election night

Go to the place they name, after polls close. Bring the Actual Vote app, a charged phone and a list of the early-voting sites and how many machines each one has. Follow the officials’ instructions about where you may stand and when you may record. Some states allow observing but not recording during the count itself (Louisiana, for example), so ask before you start.

Step 3: Record every tape

Video-record each machine’s tape slowly and steadily, holding it flat so every number is readable. Check off each machine as you go. If a tape is missing, ask whether it will be printed or posted later.

Step 4: Request results by tabulator

After the election, file a public-records request for official results, or cast-vote records, grouped by tabulator for early voting. That gives every tape an exact official figure to compare with. Then let us know what you recorded, and we’ll take it from there.