Ballots go into black boxes. Then what happens?
Earl F Glynn
December 30, 2025
Perhaps the Kansas legislature will consider improvements in election transparency by allowing citizens to see more of what’s inside the many election black boxes.
Decades ago I voted on paper ballots on election day in Manhattan while at K-State. I have vague recollections of receiving several ballots at my precinct, possibly a separate ballot for federal, state and county elections.
At that time poll workers of both parties administered the election, including counting ballots after the polls closed. The process of counting the paper ballots was simple enough for anyone to understand.
Political party members, who were often neighbors, watched each other at each step of the process, including the counting — a safeguard built into the process.
Now in Johnson County many mark ballots on election day at their precincts with ExpressVote “ballot marking devices” and then feed them into a DS200 tabulator black box to be counted.
Others request ballots my mail, and usually return these paper ballots by mail. Someone at the election office must check the correctness of the outer envelope, and if correct, then scan the returned paper ballot into the DS200 tabulator black box.
Still others (like me) vote early in-person at one of the voting centers using the ballot marking devices and then scan the ballot into the tabulator black box.
We’ve lost the concept of precinct voting and the election security provided by precinct neighbors watching each other during the election process.
Election night results from Johnson County are no longer reported by percentage of precincts reporting. Results start with early voting reported first, then an hour or two later become 100% reporting.
Results from hundreds of precincts must be combined from several sources: election day tabulator, election day hand counted, early voting tabulator, early voting hand counted, mail-in ballots counted via tabulator, provisional ballots, UOCAVA (overseas) ballots.
This added complexity not present decades ago can add doubt to the process, when little has been done to provide additional transparency about this complexity.
Any use of the “honor system” in the election process, like assuming only citizens are registered to vote because it’s the law, also takes away from public confidence.
What happens to ballots in the tabulator black boxes?
When the poll closes election workers access the tabulator election results in three ways, which are all returned to the county election office.
- A printed paper tape with the results by contest, which all election workers sign. Qualified poll agents are allowed to view the tape.
- A USB thumb drive with electronic results.
- A “ballot bin” black box containing the scanned paper ballots. (This “black box” might actually be blue.)
The county election office uses these resources to compile and report election results.
Citizens checking election results
Citizens have a right to ask questions, and ask for transparency, as part of checks and balances on the election process.
We need more transparency to help build trust in our elections, especially since the security provided by neighbors in local precincts has been largely lost. No one is watching most of the steps now.
Election officials should be more open to questions from the public about elections, especially because of computers inside the election “black boxes” provide almost no transparency.
Suggestions made about the need for better transparency in election results presented in Oct. to the Kansas legislative Special Committee on Campaign Contributions and Transparency
“Simple” tasks of trying to reconcile mail-in ballots vs. election-day ballots are not easy. Sometimes access to election records for analysis are blocked or delayed.
I worked with a small group trying to understand the Nov. 2023 election results using files we could get before and after the election, as well as the official “turnout” file from the election.
Sometimes answers to our questions left us scratching our heads, even after meeting with election officials in person.
For example, the “upset plot” below shows there were 145 voters who were in the “turnout file,” but were never seen in voter files before or after the election. How is that possible?
“Upset” plot of voter files related to Nov. 2023 JoCo elections. Red box shows 145 voters turned out but they were not listed in any voter file before or after the election. Why?
We then learned there was a difference between the “turnout file” and the voters getting “voter history.”
We learned “voter history” is a bit like a “participation trophy.” You can get “voter history” in the voter files for just participating (like requesting a mail ballot and not returning it), or voting provisionally (when the ballot is not counted). So, “voter history” is not a precise measure in comparing voter files to election results. (“Good” but not precise.)
The county (and state) provide day-by-day reporting of mail ballots sent and received, but for transparency’s sake, should be publishing a running tally of multiple ballots sent to some voters. In Nov. 2023 there were 33 more ballots sent than unique voters requesting ballots.
Some in our group wanted information available only in the poll pads to try to explain election day results. We were told only information in the state “ELVIS” system could be released.
Election day results could only be found by taking the overall election results and subtracting the advance voting voters. We believed separate election day results should be provided by the election office and should be “additive” to the advance voting results.
Part of reconciliation form used in the State of Washington that shows details about ballots counted and not counted in a standard way, including provisional and UOCAVA ballots.
Perhaps some sort of standardized “reconciliation” form for election results could be shared across all counties that would show ballots issued, voted ballots, ballots accepted and ballots not counted?
Provisional and UOCOVA ballots should also be part of the public accounting starting on election day. Provisional ballots are now reported as part of the final canvass. I could only find Kansas 2024 UOCAVA results as part of a huge Election Assistance Commission report released in June 2025.
Improvements: Need ballot images and “cast vote records”
A DS200 tabulator scans a ballot, but what is happening inside that black box?
There is a great deal of secrecy related to such voting equipment, but sometimes court battles reveal details.
A South Carolina state court battle reveals information about ballot images and cast vote records inside DS200s:
- “The system captures and retains digital images and cast vote records of every scanned ballot for auditing and adjudication.”
- “Ballot images/cast vote records are created, processed and stored at the time of tabulation and that there are safeguards in pace to ensure the privacy of each ballot.”
Additional suggestions made about the need for better transparency in election results presented in Oct. to the Kansas legislative Special Committee on Campaign Contributions and Transparency
Based on this court case, the DS200 takes a picture of the ballot and saves it as a “ballot image” file on the USB thumb drive.
Next the DS200 analyzes the ballot image and creates a text file of the votes found on the ballot — this is called a “cast vote record.” The cast vote record file should contain one record for each ballot image.
So, a thorough check of election results might start with the paper tapes printed by the tabulator after the polls closed. Numbers on that paper tape should match the number of ballot image files, and the number of votes recorded in the cast vote records.
In theory, any ballot “curing” that might happen could be detected by comparing a ballot image to its cast vote record.
Cast vote records are available as public records in some areas (such as Maryland) and have been analyzed as part of scientific studies.
Cast vote records: A database of ballots from the 2020 U.S. Election. Sci Data11, 1304 (2024).
Why are cast vote records not available for Kansas elections?
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