Missouri Secretary of State welcomes group demonstrating hand counting ballots at state capitol

JEFERSON CITY, Mo. (WGEM) - Missouri’s top election official continues his push for hand-counting as he invites a group to demonstrate it at the state capitol.

Hand counting is one of the changes President Donald Trump is encouraging states to implement in his election security push. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is a longtime supporter of hand counting. Hoskins ran for office on the promise of increasing election integrity, part of his plan to do so includes more hand counting and less machine tabulation.

In the Wednesday morning demonstration, a team of four read through a ballot, one person saying the number that corresponds with a specific result, another marking it in a spreadsheet. It took the team about an hour to get through a box of about 100 ballots.

Currently, Missouri’s local election officials have to hand count 5% of ballots after the election to make sure that sample size matches the results from the voting machines. The only way hand counting could be mandated throughout Missouri is for the legislature to change the law, but county election clerks can choose to hand count.


https://www.wgem.com/2025/04/02/missouri-secretary-state-welcomes-group-demonstrating-hand-counting-ballots-state-capitol/