Can a state count all its votes by hand? A North Dakota proposal aims to be the first to try

All election ballots would be counted by hand under a proposal that could go to North Dakota voters, potentially achieving a goal of activists across the country who distrust modern vote counting but dismaying election officials who say the change would needlessly delay vote tallies and lead to more errors. Backers of the proposed ballot measure are far from gathering enough signatures, but if the plan makes the June 2024 ballot and voters pass it, North Dakota would have to replace ballot scanners with hundreds of workers across the state who would carefully count and recount ballots. It's a change other Republican-led states have attempted unsuccessfully in the years since former President Donald Trump began criticizing the nation’s vote-counting system, falsely claiming it was rigged against him.