An Idaho county will publish ballots to combat mistrust

By Daniel Cordova Rubio 

After many election conspiracy claims in recent years, Ada County thinks it has found a way to restore confidence in the voting system. 

Trent Tripple, a Republican who had worked in the Ada County clerk’s office and was elected to lead it starting last year, said he was convinced there was a solution that could help people gain confidence in their elections once more: It was time to publish the ballots for everyone to see.

Voters were eager to learn who manufactured the county’s voting machines. What software powered them? Were any components sourced from China? Could the machines be hacked? Meanwhile, outlandish claims circulated in circles nationwide, alleging that votes had been discarded or manipulated. 

“I was tired of everybody questioning elections in Idaho,” Mr. Tripple said. “The idea is to get the vast majority of people back into this bucket of trusting elections.”

In the coming days, Mr. Tripple’s idea will be implemented for the first time in a general election. All 271,186 ballots cast in Ada County in the Nov. 5 election will be published on an interactive website, along with details of exactly how each ballot was tabulated. The Ballot Verifier program doesn’t show identifying information.

The effort is being watched by election officials around the nation who are looking for ways to restore confidence among voters amid years of distrust, stoked in large part by Mr. Trump’s false claims about a stolen election in 2020.