Verified Voting

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.

Newsom signs bill restricting law enforcement access to California ballots Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday aimed at tightening California's election security rules ahead of the June 2 statewide primary.

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:

Election Security Expert Warns Tina Peters’ Commutation Undermines Voter Trust and Accountability 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 ...

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:

Track Your Ballot or Ballot Application - Vote.org Ballot tracker tools for all 50 states. Find the status of your ballot.

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 FAQ “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.