During the 2022 election cycle, a curious thought struck Angela Shepard of Auburn as she was filling out her absentee ballot prior to working as a poll watcher.

She wondered if someone could manipulate an election by simply taking absentee ballots like hers, making multiple copies on regular copy paper, and inserting them in a tabulator at a polling place.

So Shepard decided to test her theory.

But rather than actually committing voter fraud, she took her stack of copied ballots to the public voting machine testing session held in Lee County prior to the election.

When she tried to insert her photocopies in a tabulator, they were too wide, so she eyeballed the opening, used a pair of scissors, and trimmed them by hand to what she thought was a proper size.

When Shepard tried to insert them again, something surprising and very troubling happened.

The voting tabulator accepted and counted her multiple counterfeit ballots — one after another after another.

Shepard made a video as it was happening, and it went viral shortly after being posted.

If you wonder how such a thing could have happened, Alabama is among the states that does not include a special watermark on its ballots and assurances that only ballots printed on heavy card stock paper could be read proved decidedly wrong.

Claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election led Georgia to pass a law requiring watermarked ballots last year, but Alabama has not yet followed its southeastern neighbor’s lead, with some citing the more expensive printing costs among the reasons.

Recognizing the need for stricter policing of elections, Shepard partnered with State Rep. Debbie Wood (R – Valley) to sponsor a post-election audit bill designed to ensure that Alabama elections are free from fraud and subterfuge.

Its provisions are simple and firmly rooted in common sense.

After every county and statewide election, probate judges would be required to audit the ballots of one randomly selected race in one randomly selected precinct.

Sealed ballot containers would be delivered to inspectors who would audit their contents by hand count or electronic counter.

Results would be delivered to the Secretary of State, who must publicly post them on the office’s official website and detail any discrepancies along with corrective actions.

Both Shepard and Wood have noted that Alabama is the only state in the nation that does not conduct some form of post-election review.

The 2025 regular session marks the third time their bill has been considered by the Legislature.

When Wood presented the measure in a House committee earlier this month, one Democrat lawmaker balked at the fiscal note that estimated the cumulative cost of a post-election audit at $35,000 a day.

If some say watermarked ballots cost too much, and others claim post-election audits cost too much, at some point, we need to hold politicians’ feet to the fire and demand to know exactly what price they are willing to pay for honest elections.

Most Alabamians pay for security systems that keep their homes and businesses protected from crime even if those crimes may never occur. Many pay for fire suppression systems even though fires rarely break out.

We spend those failsafe dollars because it is the wise, smart, and responsible thing to do, but Montgomery politicians cannot seem to understand that our election system needs hardened security measures and fraud suppression systems in place, too.

Rep. Wood pointed out to the committee that she won her legislative seat by just six votes cast, and only a few photocopied ballots like those Shepard made could have changed the outcome.

State Sen. Jay Hovey (R – Auburn) defeated incumbent Sen. Tom Whatley by a single vote during the 2022 cycle, and just one fraudulently cast ballot or counterfeit vote would have decided the race with a coin toss.

Post-election audits are not an inconvenience or a needless expense. They are a watchdog device ensuring that our elections are secure and an honestly cast vote is an honestly counted vote.

Using excuses and verbal gymnastics to avoid transparency and keep ballot counting in the dark needlessly erodes the public’s confidence in election integrity and raises suspicions that chicanery is afoot.

I am standing firm with Angela Shepard and Rep. Wood in support of post-election audits, and as Alabama secretary of state, I will fight like heck to make them happen.

It is time to adopt commonsense honest election protections that work because Alabama cannot afford to shortchange its democracy.

Andrew Sorrell currently serves as State Auditor and is a Republican candidate for Alabama Secretary of State during the 2026 election cycle.