Example: Visiting Polling Places on Election Night

This page illustrates one way to make an Actual Vote plan for visiting polling places on election night, through an example of how someone might have used Actual Vote at polling places on the night of the March 17, 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary in Broward County, Florida. If you live in a state that posts poll tapes at voting locations on election night, you can follow the same basic steps to make your own plan in your state for the next election.

If your state doesn’t post poll tapes, use one of the other ways to access poll tapes.

Setting the scene

Imagine you live in the Edgewood neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in Broward County.

Edgewood sits inside Fort Lauderdale, in Broward County, Florida.

It’s Sunday, March 15, 2020 — two days before election day. That’s plenty of time to make a plan.

Two days out, with the election on Tuesday the 17th.

You get the Actual Vote app, test it out, and look over the Start Here information. All this takes about 10–20 minutes.

Confirm the tapes will be posted

You already know from America Counts’s Florida state page that poll tapes are supposed to be posted outside polling places — but it seems prudent to confirm before you drive out on election night. You look up the Broward County Elections Office and call:

You: Hi, I have a question about poll tape procedure for the upcoming election. Will poll tapes be printed and publicly displayed on the wall outside Broward County polling places as part of the poll-closing procedure?

Them: Why would you care about that?

You: I’m a democracy-loving election nerd, and I want to observe the poll tapes if they’re posted.

Them: Let me get my supervisor.

Supervisor: I understand you want to observe poll tapes. Why?

You: I intend to video-record them with America Counts’s Actual Vote app, which is non-partisan and legal. The vote totals on the recordings get compared with your officially reported results to check for discrepancies.

Supervisor: That’s not really necessary — we already do internal audits.

You: Sure, but the app produces independent evidence about the accuracy of vote reporting. We have no preconceived notions — we’re just double-checking, which is great for transparency.

Supervisor: Oh… okay then. Yes, the tapes will be printed and posted outside polling places on election night.

You: Thanks!

Confirmed. There’s always a chance a particular polling place forgets to post, but you consider that an acceptable risk.

Pick your polling places and route

You look up that polls close in Florida at 7:00pm. After that, poll workers begin closing procedures, which can take a while. You figure showing up at your first polling place around 10:00pm leaves plenty of time for tapes to be posted.

Visiting a single polling place would be completely fine. But you decide you’re willing to hit about four nearby locations. You open the Broward County Supervisor of Elections “Election Day Precincts” map:

You enter your Edgewood address and the map zooms in:

That’s the Whiddon Rogers Education Center (precinct R030) — where you’ll vote Tuesday morning, and your first stop that night.

Scanning the map, you settle on four stops:

• Whiddon Rogers Education Center — 700 SW 26th St, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315. Precinct R030.
• Franklin Park Community Center — 2501 Franklin Dr, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311. Precinct Z001.
• Coconut Creek Governmental Center — 4800 W Copans Rd, Coconut Creek, FL 33063. Precinct F003.
• Vanguard Village #15 Clubhouse — 6320 Brookwood Blvd, Tamarac, FL 33321. Precinct J005.

You know this area and decide it’s safe enough to go alone on election night. (For extra safety, you could always bring a friend — see our Health, Safety & Practicality Statement.) You enter the four addresses into Google Maps for a route:

It’s about an hour and fifteen minutes of driving round-trip. Figure 15 minutes tops to record at each stop, and the whole run should take roughly 2 hours 15 minutes — home a bit past midnight, totally reasonable.

Gather your materials

A little before 10pm, you gather:

• Your mobile device with Actual Vote on it, fully charged, with enough free storage for the videos.
• A roll of tape (handy for taping down the bottom of a curled poll tape to record it).
• A flashlight.
• A printout of your route.

Your car already has enough fuel. (This is March, so you skip the umbrella — in November you might not.)

The run

• 10:05pm — Arrive at Whiddon Rogers Education Center. You voted here earlier, so you go straight to the cafeteria and see two tapes posted on the wall.
• 10:07pm — Record the first tape with Actual Vote, making sure it’s straight, clear, and no longer than it needs to be. It uploads and becomes av.democracycounts.org/PollTape/1524 — a real recording of one of the two tapes actually posted at this site. (If a recording comes out blurry, just press Retry and record again.)
• 10:09pm — Record the second tape: PollTape/1527.
• 10:29pm — Arrive at Franklin Park Community Center. No tapes on the front door… 10:31pm — there, on a side window. One tape: PollTape/1543.
• 11:02pm — Arrive at Coconut Creek Governmental Center — a huge, empty lot. You drive around and 11:07pm find them posted on a glass door. 11:09 / 11:12pm — two tapes: PollTape/1428 and PollTape/1432.
• 11:41pm — Arrive at Vanguard Village #15 Clubhouse. Two tapes near the front door: PollTape/1556 and PollTape/1561.
• 12:13am — Home after just over two hours. You open Actual Vote one more time to confirm every recording uploaded.

Here’s a still from one of those recordings (PollTape/1524) — a little blurry. If that happens, just press Retry in the app and record again:

Look closely and you can read the totals — for example, 45 votes for Joe Biden in the Democratic Presidential Primary:

That’s it — a complete election-night Actual Vote run. Let America Counts know your plan beforehand at info@democracycounts.org so we can place your videos in the analysis queue.