Bill > HB0999

This bill introduces several key changes to Tennessee's election procedures, focusing primarily on ballot security and transparency. It mandates that all voting machine ballots and paper ballots, including absentee ballots, must include a visible secure watermark as a security feature, with the specific method and placement of the watermark to be defined by the coordinator of elections. The bill also requires that ballot scanning machines base their official vote tabulation on the text or machine-marked portion of the ballot, explicitly prohibiting the use of QR codes or barcodes for vote counting. Additionally, the legislation establishes new requirements for scanning and storing paper ballots, including creating digital images of ballots at a high resolution (600 dots per square inch), and mandates that the Secretary of State create a program to post these scanned ballot images on their website within five days after an election. The bill further requires an audit of paper ballot images using optical character recognition technology, with the goal of verifying the human-readable text on ballots. These new provisions will apply to primary and general elections conducted on or after July 1, 2025, giving election officials time to implement the new systems and requirements.

Government Affairs

https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/Billinfo/default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0999&ga=114