Verified Voting

05/29/2026

After a sheriff seized thousands of ballots on false fraud claims, California just passed a law to strengthen ballot security and protect the chain of custody so every vote remains protected throughout the election process.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday aimed at tightening California's election security rules ahead of the June 2 statewide primary.

05/28/2026

Even as courts weigh the future of mail voting access in this country, the evidence hasn't changed: it has a decades-long track record of security and expands access to the ballot for millions of Americans every election.

A court found it’s too early to act in a lawsuit that says the president is trying to usurp the states’ authority to run elections.

05/21/2026

Verified Voting President & CEO Pam Smith on Colorado Gov. Jared Polis's commutation of Tina Peters, convicted of election security felonies for allowing unauthorized access to Mesa County's voting equipment:

“Maintaining a secure chain of custody for ballots and voting equipment is one of the most important safeguards in our election system. It assures voters that their ballots and personal data are safe, and that their election officials are shielding election technology from unauthorized access.

“When Tina Peters broke chain of custody in pursuit of a false fraud narrative, she not only endangered those systems, she violated the trust of voters in Mesa County. That trust is far harder to restore than the taxpayer-funded voting equipment she compromised and ultimately forced voters to replace. It’s inexcusable that the same governor who signed the Colorado Election Security Act just a few years ago would now weaken democracy and the rule of law with his action.”

Read the full statement:

May202026Press ReleaseFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: [email protected] PHILADELPHIA (May 20, 2026) — Following Colorado Governor Jared Polis’s commutation of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters’s prison sentence for felony convictions related to breaches of election equipment security ...

05/20/2026

Verified Voting just wrapped "The Stakes Are Rising: Defending the 2026 Midterms" with Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law—a briefing examining what the primary elections are signaling for November, where the most serious vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure lie, and how ongoing executive actions are creating real operational strain for the election officials tasked with delivering secure elections.

Our President & CEO Pam Smith on what that strain looks like on the ground right now:

"The resource strain on officials is real. Every hour an election director spends responding to questions driven by these executive orders is an hour they're not spending on election readiness. That's not trivial."

Stay tuned for more insights from today's briefing 🗳

05/20/2026

This , we honor the generations of Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander trailblazers who have helped light the path forward to creating a more inclusive democracy! 🗳️

From securing the right to vote to confronting exclusionary policies, AANHPI communities have long played a vital role in advancing voting rights and civic representation.

Today, organizations like Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) continue building on that work—protecting voting rights, supporting informed participation, and ensuring every community has a voice in shaping our democracy.

Explore their policy and research work here:

In early US history, only white adult male property voters were allowed to vote. The 15th Amendment and later the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution set the foundation for voting rights in this nation.

05/19/2026

We are saddened by the passing of Peter G. Neumann, a trailblazer in computer science & election security and a member of Verified Voting's Board of Advisors.

As Verified Voting’s Board Chair, Barbara Simons recalled in Communications of the ACM, “In the 1990s, he was one of the first to warn about the risks of computers in elections, many of which are still with us today.”

We are grateful for Peter's guidance, his rigor, and his unwavering commitment to election security. His voice shaped this work, and he will be greatly missed ❤️

Read the full tribute at the link in our comments.

05/13/2026

Verified Voting is excited to welcome Tina Barton to our board of directors! 🌟

Tina brings decades of leadership in election administration—including eight years spent serving as the City Clerk of the City of Rochester Hills. She’s spent her career helping establish best practices on critical issues like chain of custody, and advancing practical solutions to help strengthen the integrity of our election system.

With her deep understanding of both the technical and human elements of running secure elections, we are thrilled for Tina to bring her expertise to Verified Voting and help further our mission of strengthening democracy and promoting the responsible use of technology in elections.

Learn more about Tina:

C.Jay Coles is Verified Voting’s Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs. In this role he is responsible for tracking legislation around the country, advocating for legislation that aligns with Verified Voting’s interests (accuracy, security, and verifiability in our elections), and building rela...

05/12/2026

Your vote is your voice—make sure it’s counted exactly the way you intended. 🗳️

This primary season, if you’re voting (and you should!), take a moment before casting your ballot to carefully review your selections and confirm they reflect your choices accurately.

Checking your ballot is one of the easiest and most effective ways to help protect the transparency, accuracy, and security of our elections by ensuring your vote is recorded correctly.

After you vote, you can also track your ballot status by state here:

Ballot tracker tools for all 50 states. Find the status of your ballot.

05/05/2026

Election security is a year-round effort. Here are some highlights from how Verified Voting showed up in 2025:

⭐️ Advanced post-election audits in 25 states—including Maryland, which now requires critical risk-limiting audits of statewide contests.

⭐️ Defeated risky internet/mobile voting proposals in 7 states and pushed for more secure alternatives.

⭐️ Emerged as a leading nonpartisan voice defending constitutional balance, countering disinformation, and warning against federal overreach that could undermine election security.

⭐️ Expanded our reach to new audiences through Substack, podcasts, and visual storytelling.

As threats to democracy continue to mount and election officials face unprecedented pressure during a consequential election year, we’re building on this work in 2026.

Read the full 2025 Annual Report at the link in the comments.

04/30/2026

Verified Voting fights misinformation about election security every day. On National Honesty Day, we’re busting 3 persistent election myths with the facts about how elections really work:

🚫 MYTH: Internet voting is secure.
✅ FACT: Internet voting has been rated “as the highest risk possible to both security and safety, and privacy to a voter’s ballot,” by the FBI, DHS, NIST, and EAC in recent years.

🚫 MYTH: The U.S. needs to bring paper ballots back.
✅ FACT: Most of the country already votes using some form of paper ballots—and that’s a good thing! Paper creates a verifiable record that can be reliably audited and recounted.

🚫 MYTH: An audit is the same thing as a recount.
✅ FACT: Audits routinely check that voting systems counted ballots correctly. Recounts re-tally votes, usually when a race is close.

Learn more about each of these at the links in our comments.

“Internet voting” is often called “electronic ballot return” and means returning a voted ballot over the internet — including via mobile apps, email, fax, or via a website.