Can a state count all its votes by hand? A North Dakota proposal aims to be the first to try

By JACK DURA
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota would become the first state to require hand-counting of all election ballots if voters back a proposed ballot measure. The effort would achieve a goal of activists across the country who distrust modern vote counting but has dismayed election officials who say the change would needlessly delay vote tallies and lead to more errors. Backers are far from gathering enough signatures, but if the measure makes the June 2024 ballot and voters pass it, North Dakota would have to replace ballot scanners with hundreds of workers. It would be a change other Republican-led states have attempted unsuccessfully in the years since former President Donald Trump began criticizing the nation’s vote-counting system.