relative to ballot counting procedures and permitting the hand counting of ballots.

HB 693 would permit election officials to manually count ballots as an alternative to machine tabulation during election processing. This directly affects local election administrators and voters, as it provides a procedural option for verifying results through hand-counting. The bill's key provision allows jurisdictions to choose manual counting for specific ballot sets, such as during audits or recounts, without requiring machine use. However, the bill was deemed "Inexpedient to Legislate" by the committee in September 2025 with a 17-0 vote, meaning it did not advance further.