In a video collaboration with Free Speech For People, Ruffalo calls on state and local election officials to implement best practices to increase transparency and confidence in our elections.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 29, 2026) — Actor and producer Mark Ruffalo posted a video on Instagram last night , in collaboration with Free Speech For People, urging state and local election officials nationwide to implement two best practices designed to ensure that electronic voting machine tallies accurately reflect the will of the voters.

Electronic voting machines report election results in both physical and digital formats. At the end of Election Day, when polls are closed, voting machines print out a paper record  with all the contest vote totals known as a “poll tape.” Totals are also recorded to a USB drive or other removable media. In some states, jurisdictions may also send results over a modem to county election headquarters.

“What the county election officials should be doing when they upload the results at the county election system is to compare the electronic totals to what is printed on paper poll tapes,” Ruffalo explains. “Yet unfortunately they don’t always do this—relying solely on what the electronic version says.”

If the digital tally—provided via USB drive or wireless modem—populates incorrectly in the Election Management System, it would not be clear that the tally is incorrect, unless it’s checked against the poll tape. Errors like these have fueled false claims of voting machines deliberately “flipping” or failing to count votes, including widespread allegations against Dominion Voting Systems following the 2020 presidential election.

Ruffalo and Free Speech For People are pressing for the implementation of two best practices to lower the risk of these errors. They recommend first that county election officials verify the digital vote totals when they are uploaded at county headquarters by cross-checking them with the totals printed on paper poll tapes. They also recommend that county election officials post copies of all poll tapes to county websites, as they are considered public records and should be available for the public to access. 

“These best practices will greatly increase transparency and confidence in our elections,” Ruffalo concludes, urging viewers to sign Free Speech For People’s petition for election officials to adopt them.

Ruffalo previously encouraged voters to support Free Speech For People’s election security initiatives at a “Hands Off Our Vote” event in New York City on October 4.

For more information on Free Speech For People’s campaign and to take action, click here.