Election Integrity Group Wants Candidates and Voters to Know Their Recount Rights Before Election Day

New 2026 toolkit provides resources to help candidates and voters prepare to verify election results

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- An independent election integrity organization has launched a new 2026 Election Preparedness Toolkit to help candidates, campaigns, and voters understand the rules and procedures that can be critical to verifying election results—before Election Day arrives.

The free public toolkit from the Election Truth Alliance (ETA) brings together state-by-state recount information, guidance for documenting election incidents, hand-count procedures, election security resources, and ready-to-use tools for voters who want to ask candidates about election result verification.

Know the risks. Know your rights. Prepare.

The toolkit is designed to help candidates and voters understand potential election security risks and to know the laws and procedures that govern recounts and election challenges in their state.

"Every candidate and campaign, regardless of party, office, or political viewpoint, should be familiar with the laws and procedures that govern recounts, audits, certification, and election challenges in their state," says Lilli McGregor, ETA Executive Director of Operations and Communications. "These rules differ significantly across the United States. Deadlines may be extremely short. Waiting until a concern arises may be too late."
 

Resources for candidates and campaigns include:

• State-by-state recount rules and deadlines, including information on automatic and candidate-requested recounts, eligibility, costs, timing, and partial recounts.
• An Open Letter to Candidates outlining the importance of preparing in advance to ensure election results can be appropriately verified.
• Guidance for documenting election incidents and understanding potential recount and challenge procedures.
• U.S. Hand Count Guidance by State, compiling existing state-level procedural guidance for counting ballots by hand.

Resources for voters include:

• Election security resources addressing known vulnerabilities and risks surrounding computerized election systems.
• Election myth-busting resources, providing source-based explanations of common claims about election machinery, paper ballots, audits, and election administration.
• Voter-to-Candidate outreach templates and scripts for contacting campaigns about recount and audit preparedness.
• Tools for finding candidates and campaign contact information.

The ETA encourages voters to use the Election Preparedness Toolkit to reach out directly to candidates they care about to make sure their campaigns are prepared to monitor applicable recount and audit deadlines, and to understand the procedures available to address evidence-based concerns.

"Being prepared doesn't mean assuming something will go wrong," says McGregor. "It just means that candidates and voters are empowered and ready to pursue lawful options if something unexpected happens or the results are called into question."

The ETA is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to supporting election integrity through education, research, analysis, and civic engagement. Its volunteers include professionals with backgrounds in cybersecurity, statistics, political science, academia, math and sciences, computer programming, elections, fraud/loss prevention, and financial auditing.

The 2026 Election Preparedness Toolkit is available at:
ETA.VOTE/toolkit/

Additional ETA resources published as part of the organization's 2026 ETA Public Oversight Strategy include a cybersecurity technical brief on U.S. election security and a new data visualization tool focused on Voter Registration Trends Over Time.

For more information about the Election Truth Alliance or to support its work, visit ETA.VOTE.

Media Contact
Angela Predhomme
(872) 216-9711
[email protected] 

SOURCE The Election Truth Alliance