{"id":352,"date":"2026-01-25T20:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T01:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/?p=352"},"modified":"2026-02-02T18:29:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T23:29:36","slug":"all-about-the-chain-of-custody-the-process-that-keeps-elections-secure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/infrastructure-security\/election-security\/all-about-the-chain-of-custody-the-process-that-keeps-elections-secure\/","title":{"rendered":"All about the \u2018chain of custody,\u2019 the process that keeps elections secure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Election officials use a detailed <strong>chain of custody<\/strong> process to protect ballots and voting machines throughout an election, from delivery and setup to tabulation and long-term storage. This process documents who handles election materials, when transfers occur, and how equipment and ballots are secured, often requiring tamper-evident seals, logs, and bipartisan oversight. The goal is not only to prevent interference, but also to provide clear evidence that safeguards were followed if results are questioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to <strong>VoteBeat<\/strong>, even minor lapses in documentation\u2014such as a missing signature or an incomplete log\u2014can trigger investigations or legal challenges, sometimes putting valid votes at risk despite no indication of wrongdoing. As election security faces increasing scrutiny, chain-of-custody procedures remain a foundational but often misunderstood layer of protection that helps maintain trust in election outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.votebeat.org\/2026\/01\/16\/chain-of-custody-ballot-voting-machines-verification-election-security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the full story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Election officials use a detailed chain of custody process to protect ballots and voting machines throughout an election, from delivery and setup to tabulation and long-term storage. This process documents&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[30,32,29,31],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election-security","tag-chain-of-custody","tag-election-administration","tag-election-security","tag-voting-machines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":390,"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxalbanese.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}