What exactly is printed on Georgia tabulator 'zero tapes' and how are they supposed to be used in certification?
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Executive summary
Zero tapes are paper printouts produced by electronic ballot tabulators before voting begins that display the machine’s internal vote registers as zero and serve as a verifiable record that no votes are stored on the device’s memory card; Georgia law requires printing and signing such tapes at the start of each voting day and three closing tapes at the end of each day to support county certification and statewide canvass procedures [1] [2] [3] [4]. Recent hearings and reporting allege many of Fulton County’s early‑voting tabulator tapes were not signed or verified, a procedural lapse invoked by challengers to argue those votes lacked statutory “certification,” while nonpartisan guidance explains zero tapes are one element among statutory and administrative certification steps [4] [5] [6].
1. What exactly is printed on a “zero tape”
A zero tape is a paper record produced by a vote tabulator that prints the internal data registers showing counts for every candidate, option, or contest and, crucially, indicates zeros across those registers before any ballots are processed — in plain terms it declares the machine contains “zero” votes on its memory card when the polls open [1] [2] [3]. Definitions used by election‑security glossaries and legal dictionaries describe the zero tape as a printout of the tabulator’s internal counters and totalizers; those counters are what election officials and observers read and sign to confirm the machine is starting from a known, empty state [1] [2].
2. How zero tapes are supposed to be used in Georgia’s certification chain
Georgia practice and statute require tabulators to print a zero tape at the start of each voting session and to print three closing tapes at the end of each voting day; poll workers are expected to sign these tapes or document a reason for refusal, and those signed tapes are retained as part of the official record that supports the county certification of results that the secretary of state later canvasses [4] [7] [6]. The zero tape functions as a trust anchor: it provides contemporaneous proof that the machine’s internal totals were zero before votes were cast, which auditors and canvassers later compare against closing tapes, memory card totals, and post‑election audits to detect discrepancies [3] [8].
3. The dispute in Fulton County: missing signatures versus broader certification law
Conservative and partisan outlets and petitioners told the State Election Board that Fulton County failed to produce signed zero or closing tabulator tapes for roughly 315,000 advanced votes and therefore unlawfully “certified” those returns, a line of argument built on the statutory requirement that tapes be printed and signed [4] [7] [5]. That allegation focuses narrowly on the procedural signature requirement for tabulator tapes; at the same time, neutral analyses of Georgia’s certification chain emphasize multiple steps — county certification, transmission to the secretary of state, and statutory canvass deadlines — so the absence of a given signed tape is a procedural defect but, by itself, does not automatically determine how courts or the statewide canvass must proceed without additional adjudication [6].
4. Technical context and practical limits of what zero tapes prove
Tabulators and vendors (for example, manufacturers’ documentation about memory cards and approved media) are built to restrict unauthorized data transfers and to record results to internal memory devices, and zero tapes reflect the state of those internal registers at a moment in time; they do not themselves prove the entire absence of tampering across every component, nor do the public sources provided list line‑by‑line formats or exact wording printed on Georgia’s machines — only that the tape shows zero totals for contests and is intended to verify no votes are stored prior to voting [9] [1] [2]. Election practice therefore treats zero tapes as a strong procedural control that must be preserved, signed, and cross‑checked with closing tapes, test‑deck results, and post‑election audits to create a durable certification record [8].
5. Bottom line: what the paper says and why it matters for certification
The zero tape prints the tabulator’s internal vote totals and signals “zero” across contests before ballots are accepted; Georgia law integrates those tapes into the signed documentary trail counties must keep and submit as part of certifying local returns for the statewide canvass, so unsigned or missing tapes are a material procedural lapse that fuels legal challenges, even as the broader certification framework involves additional steps and remedies handled by the secretary of state, the State Election Board, and courts [1] [2] [3] [4] [6]. The public record supplied here does not include a verbatim sample of a Georgia zero tape’s printed lines, only standard definitions and descriptions of its purpose and the statutory requirement to print and sign zero and closing tapes [1] [2] [3] [4].