Election equipment companies can be required by law to build in an audit trail. If they refuse, change the equipment or see that they are not paid until they make the required changes. If votes are counted at the precinct level, there is usually a posting of the tally on the door of the precinct after the count. Collect the information from each precinct to make certain results are not switched at the central tallying point. Finally, compare the total number of votes recorded with the number of people checked off as present at the polls.
Any discrepancy is worthy of a challenge.
Candidates and voters alike must always be on the lookout for signs of tampering with election results, regardless of how ethical the people are who conduct the elections. Tip-offs that foul play has occurred include the following. If the number of absentee ballots is out of line with past trends, demand an audit. If a large scale voter registration campaign takes place within months of the election, fraudulent ballots can amount to as much as twenty percent of the vote in those areas, especially if absentee ballots are legally given to someone other than the actual voter. False registrations are popular in the south and in third-world countries that bother to require registration.