Help us audit vote reporting in the 2026 midterm elections.
If you have a smartphone, you can use our Actual Vote app to send us videos of poll tapes, which we use to double-check the vote reporting. It strengthens democracy, and doesn't require any special access or qualifications. The election is in — days!
About America Counts
A non-partisan nonprofit helping Americans double-check how their votes are reported.
We help build trustworthiness in elections
We give people a way to see for themselves that the vote was reported honestly — turning trust from something you're asked to take on faith into something anyone can check.
We make free election-auditing apps anyone can use
Our apps, Actual Vote and Wanna Vote, are free and need nothing but a smartphone — so checking an election isn't reserved for officials or experts.
10 years of cutting-edge election transparency work
Since 2016, we've built and refined practical, independent ways to verify how the vote is reported — a decade of methods now proven across multiple states and elections.
About Actual Vote
Actual Vote is our free app for building trustworthiness in vote reporting — it turns any smartphone into a tool you can use to participate in auditing the vote reporting in your county.
Volunteers record poll tapes — the printed totals each voting machine produces when polls close — and we compare those totals, precinct by precinct, against the results authorities officially report.
About half of U.S. states have no meaningful audit of that reporting step, where local totals are aggregated into official results. We help fill the gap with a public, verifiable record built by many hands: every recording is archived, every finding is published, and anyone can re-run the comparison themselves.
Start here to learn more.
What Actual Vote has accomplished so far
(Stay tuned for more reports documenting our past work!)
Vote reporting in the U.S. is vulnerable — and not sufficiently audited.
When local vote totals are aggregated into official countywide and statewide results, errors can happen — and sometimes they have. About half of U.S. states have no meaningful audit requirements for vote reporting. America Counts exists to help fill that gap with independent, people-powered verification.
How it works
Three simple steps. The trust relationships and tools you need already exist.
- 1
Record
You video-record poll tapes — the paper printouts from voting machines that show vote totals at each polling place.
- 2
We analyze
America Counts compares the numbers on your recordings to the officially reported results.
- 3
Findings are published
Every analysis is published publicly. When the numbers match, that’s independent confirmation. When they don’t, we investigate.
The results are already public. Now the checking is too.
Actual Vote turns any smartphone into independent verification of how your community’s votes were reported — recorded, archived, and open for anyone to re-check.
Actual Vote is for everyone.
Find your path in.
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Everyone
You have a smartphone. That’s all you need.
Learn more → -
Community Leaders
Organize your community to audit local elections together.
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Civic Organizations
Add independent election auditing to your mission.
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Students
Turn civic engagement into published evidence. Ages 13+.
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Candidates & Campaigns
Independent evidence for the races you care about most.
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Election Administrators
Demonstrate accuracy with independent, public verification.
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Election Workers
Your access to poll tapes is uniquely valuable.
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Journalists
A new model of civic participation, with real data.
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Built on established methodology. Open to everyone. Fully transparent.
Peer-reviewed methodology
Batch comparison auditing has been around for over a decade and is endorsed by the Election Assistance Commission, Verified Voting, and the Brennan Center.
All data is public
Every recording is archived at av.democracycounts.org. Every analysis can be double-checked by anyone.
Non-partisan by design
Actual Vote produces honest evidence regardless of who uses it. We welcome participants of all political affiliations.
Latest from America Counts
Reports, analysis, and updates from our auditing work.
New America Counts website released, with great new features
A ground-up redesign of americacounts.us — a clearer Start Here walkthrough, live cumulative audit totals, per-state guidance, and published reports anyone can re-check.
Read more →
2026 Cobb County, GA Primary Runoff — report published
Cobb County's June 2026 General Primary Runoff: every candidate-vote comparison matched the county's certified results — 260 of 260, 80,449 votes, zero apparent discrepancies, across both election-day and advance voting. The advance vote became comparable after the county answered an open-records request with its per-tabulator cast-vote records.
Read report →
2024 North Carolina Second Primary — report published
A field report, not a comparison audit. The North Carolina State Board of Elections did not publish precinct-level results for this low-turnout Second Primary, so no transcribed value had an official counterpart to compare against — hence the zeros below. Volunteers across four counties still recorded the election-day tapes: 12 transcribable submissions and 72 vote totals, archived and documented here.
Read report →Ready to help strengthen democracy?
Our Start Here guide walks you through everything — from how the system works to making your plan for the next election.