An Idaho County Will Publish Everyone’s Ballots to Combat Mistrust
The New York Times
After enduring a host of election conspiracy claims in recent years, Ada County believes it has found a way to restore confidence in the vote-counting system.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, as supporters of Donald J. Trump scoured the nation for any malfeasance that might explain his defeat, the county clerk’s office in Boise, Idaho, was inundated with queries.
Voters wanted to know who had built the county’s voting machines. What software were they using? Did any parts came from China? Were the machines vulnerable to hacking? Outlandish claims were spreading in conservative circles across the country that votes had been discarded or altered in a coordinated effort to rig the election.
Trent Tripple, a Republican who had worked in the Ada County clerk’s office and was elected to lead it starting last year, said he was convinced there was a solution that could help people gain confidence in their elections once more: It was time to publish the ballots for everyone to see.
“I was tired of everybody questioning elections in Idaho,” Mr. Tripple said. “The idea is to get the vast majority of people back into this bucket of trusting elections.”
In the coming days, Mr. Tripple’s pioneering idea will be put into effect for the first time in a general election. All 271,186 ballots cast in Ada County in the Nov. 5 election will be published on an interactive website, along with details of exactly how each ballot was tabulated.
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