New way to report election results aims to make it 'easy to vote and hard to cheat'

The Office of the Alabama Secretary of State has put in place a new procedure for election nights for the 2022 election cycle.

The new rule will change the way results are tabulated and released in Alabama.

All the data will go onto a thumb drive, which will be reported to the Secretary of State's Office.

There will be no internet or Bluetooth involved.

"When it has not been exposed to the internet, in any other capacity, then you don't have to worry about the possibility of vulnerabilities being introduced or exposed," said Secretary of State of Alabama, John Merrill.

The computers being used are for elections only and training has been completed in all of Alabama's 67 counties.

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In Clay County for example, the only ones who have access to that thumb drive are the probate judge, Tammy Sprayberry, and chief clerk. They will be pulling the data straight from the thumb drive.

"There are no way for mistakes because you are taking your results straight from the computer system, the results that are read, you are taking it straight from there, so the voters will have first access on what the outcome is," said Sprayberry.

Before, a few counties were using machines that were connected to the internet for other purposes.

That is one reason why the state purchased machines for all the counties in Alabama.

The goal is to ensure results are 100% accurate ensuring voters know the process is secure and accurate.

"Of course all of our people have been trained at the local level. Each one of our 68 probate judges in our 67 counties have done an outstanding job in ensuring our procedures are safe and secure, transparent and accountable," said Merrill. "In Alabama we are going to continue to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat."

With these changes, the process for voters will be the same.

The only difference for voters is that they won't see results as quickly as they once did since the numbers will be reported to Montgomery all at once, instead of trickling in throughout the night.

"Anybody that violates the trust and confidence of that process will be added to our list of people we have identified and prosecuted for voter fraud," said Merrill.

The Secretary of State's Office is working closely with local election offices to ensure the staff is changed and ready for Election Day.