Election Chief Agrees to Cooperate with Citizen Audit Group

The second-most populous county in Florida has a history of controversial vote counts. Concerned, Citizens Audit Broward sprung into action. The nonpartisan group is recruiting Democratic, Republican and independent citizens to serve as volunteer election auditors in all 2020 elections. click here

Citizens Audit volunteers will monitor election results with the help of Democracy Counts, a San Diego-based tech startup that has created several same-day election audit apps. The first app, "Actual Vote," will be available for free on the Apple app store; it is not yet available for Android but will be soon. Actual Vote lets volunteers record the results that election workers post at polling stations before transmitting results to authorities. This app allows citizens to make sure the vote count officials reveal to the public is the same vote count recorded at election sites. The hard data will also make it easier for people to present evidence to a judge who will want concrete information and not just allegations of possible election fraud or error.

Peter Antonacci, the Broward Supervisor of Elections, said, "I welcome it. We should be watched carefully, based on reputation. We've earned it,"...Antonacci told WLRN about Citizens Audit Broward. "Whatever they have to offer, they can bring to the canvassing board and it will be positive. To the extent that we can accommodate their interests under the current legal structure we're gonna do it."

Antonacci, a Republican, was appointed by former GOP Gov. Rick Scott. Now a Republican Senator, Scott removed the Democrat who had served under controversial circumstances for more than a decade. click here

Broward County, in South Florida, is a Democratic stronghold that is important to the presidential aspirations of Donald Trump and his eventual Democratic opponent. Almost 600,000 citizens are registered as Democrats, 355,000 voters list themselves as non-aligned and 251,000 sign up as Republicans here. Experts consider Florida a key swing state; President Trump won the Sunshine State in 2016 by about 100,000 votes. .browardsoe.org/

Citizens Audit Broward volunteers will monitor polls in the March presidential preference primary, the August primary and the November general election.

Democracy Counts is reaching out to citizens and organizations in the 2020 battleground states to spur more volunteer election audit efforts. ocracycounts.org/

You can also subscribe to the Actual Vote YouTube Channel to learn how to use the app. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0TemToUU-T64c0vq3U7xXw