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HB1978 • 2026

Election tabulation devices

Concerning transparency in election tabulation devices.

Elections
Passed Legislature

This bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, even if later executive action is not shown here.

Sponsor
Representative Chase, Representative Waters, Representative Marshall, Representative Schmidt, Representative Volz, Representative Ley
Last action
2026-01-12
Official status
H State Govt & T
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

Election tabulation devices

Election tabulation devices

What This Bill Does

  • Election tabulation devices

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

  1. 2026-01-12 House

    By resolution, reintroduced and retained in present status.

Official Summary Text

Election tabulation devices

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
AN ACT Relating to transparency in election tabulation devices; 1
adding a new section to chapter 29A.12 RCW; and creating a new 2
section. 3
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:4
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that transparency to 5
the public is of utmost importance in maintaining confidence that the 6
votes cast in our elections are counted accurately. In the most 7
recent elections, there have been much criticism of the lack of 8
accurate vote counts. A lack of faith in election results causes many 9
enfranchised citizens to not participate in elections.10
Businesses that manufacture hardware or software devices do not 11
currently share their source codes with the public. The legislature 12
finds that requiring election tabulation equipment vendors to make 13
source codes available to members of the general public, upon 14
request, will increase transparency in election results and increase 15
voter confidence with election outcomes. 16
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 29A.12 17
RCW to read as follows: 18
(1) Any contract with a vendor of ballot tabulation machines, 19
ballot tabulation hardware, or ballot tabulation software must 20
H-1368.1
HOUSE BILL 1978
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By Representatives Chase, Waters, Marshall, Schmidt, Volz, and Ley
Read first time 02/14/25. Referred to Committee on State Government
& Tribal Relations.
p. 1 HB 1978
include a provision requiring the vendor to provide the county 1
auditor with the source code for the program used in the ballot 2
tabulation machine, ballot tabulation hardware, or ballot tabulation 3
software. To the extent that the source code is not deemed 4
confidential, and its disclosure is not prohibited, under this title 5
or chapter 42.56 RCW, the county auditor shall make the source code 6
available for public inspection and copying. 7
(2) For the purpose of this section, "source code" means a 8
computer program in its original programming language written in the 9
form of functions, descriptions, definitions, calls, methods, and 10
other operational statements that describes sequences of specific 11
actions that a computer interprets and executes to perform a specific 12
task. 13
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p. 2 HB 1978