This bill mandates the Secretary of State to conduct audits of ballot counting machines following state primaries, general elections, and presidential primaries. The bill outlines the requirements for the audit process, including the procurement of equipment capable of reading all ballots, scanning at a rate of approximately 2,000 ballots per hour, capturing images of both sides of the ballot, recording voters' choices, assigning unique identifiers to each record, and displaying ballot images and voter choices for randomly selected ballots. The Secretary of State is instructed to randomly select a minimum of eight towns or city wards for audit, with the selection process being non-public and occurring after ballot counting device memory cards have been programmed. The results of the audits must be made available before 12:00 p.m. on the Friday following the election, with any significant discrepancies potentially leading to a full hand recount.

The fiscal note attached to the bill indicates that there will be no impact on state revenue, but there will be increased expenditures starting from FY 2024, primarily due to the purchase of a new high-speed scanner and annual software subscriptions. The estimated costs are $122,000 for FY 2024, $98,000 for FY 2025, and $74,000 for FY 2026. The funding source for these expenditures is not specified in the provided text. The Department of State has noted that there may not be a scanner currently on the market capable of reading all ballots used in elections, as required by the bill. The fiscal impact is expected to occur after FY 2023.