Committee advances post-election audit bill after debate over costs and scope

House Bill 30, a bill to require post-election audits of DS200 ballot tabulators, was presented to the Ways and Means General Fund Committee and received a favorable committee report after debate and an agreed amendment.

Representative Wood presented the bill, telling the committee the measure is intended to verify that the DS200 tabulators that process paper ballots are “working properly” and to increase public confidence in election results. Representative Wood noted the bill had passed this committee and the House floor previously.

The committee adopted an amendment offered by Representative Paul Lee that specifies the canvassing board in each county shall randomly select precincts for audit, requires the audit to be completed by the time election returns are certified by the secretary of state, and requires that audits "be conducted by manual tally or by use of ballot counters provided that at least 30 randomly selected ballots are individually manually examined and compared to the ballot counter result for each selected ballot." Representative Paul Lee read the replacement language aloud for the record.

Members asked about cost and logistics. Representative Warren questioned the necessity and cited a cost estimate of roughly $35,000 per day for statewide counts, asking where the money would come from and whether counties had capacity to absorb the work. Representative Wood said the $35,000 figure would cover statewide counting and that the estimate would vary with staffing and wages but that auditors believed the work could be done in one day. Wood also told the committee she had won an election by six votes and described concerns after testing showed copied ballots were accepted in public testing of the machines: "You're looking at a girl that won by 6 votes," she said, describing why she favored audits.

Representative Lamb described local variation in precinct size and warned that a large precinct — he cited a Tuscaloosa example of 9,000 voters — could require days to recount manually; Representative Wood said the largest precinct she found in her review had about 2,900 votes. Other members pressed whether the probate judges' association supported the bill; Representative Wood said she had worked with them but had not received calls from probate judges this session.

After discussion the committee approved the amendment and then moved the bill forward with a favorable report. The committee did not take a final (floor) vote on the bill in this meeting.

Ending: The bill will proceed with the committee’s favorable report and the sponsor and committee staff will address outstanding operational questions (cost estimates, precinct-size planning and probate judge engagement) ahead of later action.