# Ballot Adjudication **Ballot adjudication** is the stage at which a human decides what a mark means. When a tabulator cannot resolve a ballot (an overvote, an ambiguous or partial mark, a write-in, a crossed-out oval with a correction elsewhere), it sets the ballot aside rather than guessing. A board, usually two people from opposing parties, then decides the vote under the state's definition of a valid mark. The structural point is that the tabulator does not decide the election. It decides which ballots a person will look at. The standard the board applies is the one each state must adopt under 52 U.S.C. § 21081(a)(6). Federal law says nothing about who adjudicates, whether both parties must be present, whether the log is public, or whether the voter is ever told. ## Adjudication versus duplication Colorado's rules draw the line most plainly: - **Duplication** is for ballots the scanner physically cannot read: torn, stained or misprinted. A bipartisan team copies the voter's marks onto a fresh ballot, which is scanned in its place. The original is kept and tied to the copy, usually by a shared serial number. That pairing is a custody point in its own right. - **Adjudication** resolves the meaning of marks on a ballot the scanner *did* read: overvotes, undervotes, write-ins and ambiguous marks. In modern systems it happens **on screen**, against the stored ballot image. The election management system logs each decision next to the image. On-screen adjudication leaves an image, a decision and a log. Duplication leaves two pieces of paper. Each is auditable, but in different ways. ## Who sits on the board The membership rule is state law. Georgia's vote review panel is the county superintendent plus one appointee from each party (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-483(g)(2)(A)). Colorado uses bipartisan teams for both steps. Some states leave the composition to county procedure manuals. ## How much gets adjudicated Rates swing with ballot design, write-in rules and scanner thresholds, so a raw rate says little on its own. In Maricopa County in 2020 about **11%** of 2.1 million ballots went to adjudication, reviewed by Democratic–Republican pairs (one source, ABC15). The higher Fulton County figures that circulated after 2020 are disputed and are not asserted here. ## Why it became a target Adjudication is the one step where a person, not a machine, settles what a ballot says. After 2020 that made it the step [[Election Denialism]] pointed to. Fulton County is the live case. On **January 28, 2026** the FBI seized hundreds of boxes of 2020 material there, including ballots, tabulator tapes and ballot images, with [[Tulsi Gabbard]] present. On **May 6, 2026** Judge J.P. Boulee (N.D. Ga.) let the Justice Department keep more than 600 boxes, writing that the seizure "was certainly not perfect" but showed no "callous disregard." ## See Also - [[Ballot Marking Validity Crosswalk]]: the state standards an adjudication panel applies, and the machine threshold that decides which ballots reach it - [[How a Ballot Is Counted]] · [[Optical Scan Voting System]] · [[Cast Vote Record]] - [[Overvote]] · [[Undervote]] · [[Voter Intent]] - [[Election Canvass]] · [[Election Ballot Chain of Custody Flow]] · [[Election Management System]] - [[Help America Vote Act]] · [[Georgia State Election Board]]