ADA COUNTY, Idaho — 64% of Americans said they are very or somewhat confident in 2024 votes across the country being counted accurately. The data comes from a trio of bi-partisan groups, taking stock of who Americans trust in elections.
In Ada County, Idaho a team of election experts are hard at work to combat doubts of election integrity. Like math teachers always say: you gotta show your work.
Ada County Clerk Trent Tripple and the county elections team are set to launch a first-of-its-kind election data and transparency site.
“This level of transparency and the access to this data is not happening anywhere else that I'm aware of,” Tripple said.
The Ballot Verifier tool will host a record of every ballot, every box filled in, for every Ada County race moving forward. Easy to access data and scans of ballots for a legitimate full record of election results. However, the public can rest easy as the names on the ballots are removed.
Ada County elections said the tool, "will allow the public to explore a wide range of Ada County election data, including ballot images and Cast Vote Records (CVR) for all elections from 2022 forward. The Ballot Verifier is designed to ensure the accuracy and integrity of every vote cast in Ada County elections. It allows voters to verify that ballots are being tabulated correctly, while also providing peace of mind that their voices were heard accurately."
Saul Seyler is the Elections Director for Ada County. He walked KTVB through the new tool which will launch this week, with complete data going back to 2022.
“We want everyone to be able to trust in the election process. And this will provide some ultimate transparency into the ballots cast and how they were read,” Seyler said.
As you may imagine, it’s been a major lift. Seyler said the program's implementation will take about 18 months, and a lot of background work needed to be completed to truly understand the system's innerworkings.
Saul just mentioned working with an Adam and that is Adam Friedman, CEO of CIVERA. A company that looks to use technology to build a better democracy. Friedman remembers the struggles of trying to get election data in Massachusetts, which led to this new tool. Ultimate transparency down to every pen mark on a ballot.
“Ada County, Idaho, is the first to launch the surveyors ballot verifier,” Friedman said. “This ushers in a new era of American democracy. Frankly, where the technology is there, the technology makes all of this possible. There's really no more excuse for jurisdictions around the country to provide that window into these live operations and into, you know, into the deepest levels of our election process so that everyone feels like together, you know, we're all seeing honest results. And we know that people who are being elected really belong there and are there to serve us.”
A motivation behind the creation is due to the extreme reactions across the spectrum to the 2020 Presidential election.
“The only way to cut through these kinds of extreme points of view is to just show people the goods, show them the facts, put that. Put that out there, and then we can all, you know, come to our own conclusion. And also having this so open makes the whole process much more auditable, makes government more accountable and just instills collective confidence in our processes,” Friedman said.
If you were wondering, does anyone request this type of information?
“People come to us all the time with questions about elections, integrity, and they go, hey, we've heard or seen some things that are happening other places, and we go, well, you don't have to worry here. It's all there. Whether or not they go look at it, that's up to them. But the fact that we're putting it out there shows to the public that there's no reason to distrust what we're doing,” Tripple said.
The use of the tool doesn’t change the election process. Ada County is not moving toward digital elections.
“No, the paper ballot is still the official record. These are just images of the paper ballot. These aren't even the official results. The official results come out on election night. Those systems only talk to each other after the fact. Right. So this is just a window into what we're doing and all the data that we have,” Tripple said.
Join 'The 208' conversation:
- Text us at (208) 321-5614
- E-mail us at the208@ktvb.com
- Join our The 208 Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/the208KTVB/
- Follow us on Twitter: @the208KTVB or tweet #the208 and #SoIdaho
- Follow us on Instagram: @the208KTVB
- Bookmark our landing page: /the-208
- Still reading this list? We're on YouTube, too:
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET NEWS FROM KTVB:
Download the KTVB News Mobile App
Apple iOS: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Watch news reports for FREE on YouTube: KTVB YouTube channel
Stream Live for FREE on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching 'KTVB'.
Stream Live for FREE on FIRE TV: Search ‘KTVB’ and click ‘Get’ to download.