Make Your Actual Vote Plan
Do these steps to make your Actual Vote plan for the next election.
Get set up with the Actual Vote app.
- Get the Actual Vote app on your mobile device
- Go through the iOS instructions or Android instructions to get set up
- Take a practice recording of our practice poll tape, a grocery receipt, or your wall, to make sure that you can record and upload properly. Try to take a good-quality recording:
Great recordings are:
In focus and well-aligned
Legible
Well-lit
Bad recordings are:
Blurry and crooked
Hard to read
Poorly lit
STEP 2
Learn the the five basic ways to access poll tapes to record with the Actual Vote app.
1. Outside of Polling Places on Election Night
In some states, the law requires poll workers to post poll tapes on the outside wall of the polling place after the polls close on election night. It is legal for the general public to view, photograph, or video-record these poll tapes (like with the Actual Vote app).
On election night, Actual Vote users in such states visit one or more polling places at night after the polls close to video-record the tapes that are posted.
Actual Vote videos of these poll tapes are particularly strong evidence about vote reporting, since they are taken shortly after the poll tapes are printed. In other words, the videos are early in the chain of custody of the poll tapes.
This method is usually limited to poll tapes corresponding to election day voting. For other voting methods (like absentee or early voting), you’ll need one of the techniques below.
Poll tapes posted in public view on the wall of a polling place on election night after closing time
2. Poll Observers or Poll Watchers As The Tape Is Being Printed at the Polling Place
If you happen to be a poll observer or a poll watcher, you’ll have greater access than the general public at your polling place. In many cases you will be allowed to observe poll tapes inside the polling place as they are being printed during the closing procedure, or shortly after. This usually extends to taking Actual Vote videos.
Poll tapes being printed
3. Make An Appointment With The Elections Office to View Tapes
You can call or email your county elections office to make an appointment to view poll tapes and video-record them with Actual Vote.
The advantage of this method is that they will often provide you a copy of many, if not all, of the poll tapes from each of the precincts in the county.
You can use this method in any state.
Actual Vote users video-recording poll tapes in the Broward County, Florida Board of Elections office in 2020
4. Freedom of Information Act Request
In many cases, it’s possible to file a Freedom of Information Act request with your local board of elections to provide you with a set of scanned .pdfs of poll tapes from precincts in your county, or even a duplicate set of copies of poll tapes in some cases.
You can use this method in any state.
5. Central Tabulation
In some areas, votes are tabulated not at polling places, but at a central location like the county Board of Elections office. In some cases, the public is able to observe this tabulating process, which includes viewing and video-recording the poll tapes. In other cases, poll tapes are not printed, but the tabulated totals are called out verbally, and this can be recorded.
STEP 3
See if poll tapes are posted in public at polling places after closing time in your state.
Laws and policies around posting poll tapes vary by state:
So if you live in the solid-green states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, or Pennsylvania, you are particularly encouraged to explore the possibility of visiting one or more polling places on election night to video-record poll tapes with Actual Vote.
If you live in a state marked with green stripes or with solid yellow, you may be able to use Actual Vote on election night as well—it’ll depend on local laws and procedures.
Meanwhile, the other methods of poll tape access are possible in any state.
STEP 4
Make your plan.
Now it’s time to make an Actual Vote plan that’s appropriate for the location in which you plan to use the app. This location is usually your home county. (People occasionally travel to other counties to use Actual Vote.)
Select your state on our Actual Vote State Select page to find more details about Actual Vote that state, as well as references to the relevant state law and contact info for county elections offices.
Then choose one of the Actual Vote use case examples below based on what color your state is on the map above. You can use that example as inspiration to make your own Actual Vote plan:
(Coming soon!) Example of making an Actual Vote plan if you can’t easily access tapes in your area
STEP 5
Let America Counts know that you’re going to use Actual Vote.
Send us an email at info@democracycounts.org to let us know you’re using Actual Vote! We can help out in a lot of ways:
- We can assist you in making a realistic Actual Vote plan for your area
- We can connect you to other Actual Vote users in your area, which may include coordinators that can slot you into their existing plans
- We can invite you to our next Actual Vote video training session
- We can place the poll tape videos you are planning to take in our analysis queue
- We can add you to our mailing list
When you become an Actual Vote user, you join a nationwide community of people ready to help strengthen democracy by double-checking vote reporting!