Danilo Feliciano isn’t concerned with the outcome of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s millage renewal. He did vote against it—but not because of the tax itself. “I tend to distrust tax initiatives placed before voters on low-turnout, single-issue voting days,” he explained. What he is concerned about is the foundation it rested on: a voting system he believes is fundamentally broken—and illegal under federal law.
“This recount is being brought to highlight that in an election where over 26,000 people voted, only several hundred paper ballots will be recounted,” Feliciano told Big Easy Magazine. “That’s not right.”
Feliciano, a Lyft driver, Army veteran, and self-taught advocate for election transparency, has spent the past seven years documenting and filing legal challenges against Louisiana’s use of paperless voting machines. He’s filed complaints, delivered notarized petitions, sued state officials, and taken his fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court—three times.
At the heart of his latest recount petition is a larger claim: Louisiana’s use of voting machines that don’t produce individual, auditable paper records violates the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. He points to the AVC Advantage machines, manufactured in the early 1990s and still used across the state on Election Day, as noncompliant. Even the ImageCast X machines used for early voting—though capable of producing a paper trail—had their audit feature disabled.
“We have the capability to produce a permanent record,” Feliciano said. “The state chose not to. That’s a deliberate violation of federal law.”
And he may not be wrong. According to the Washington Post, Louisiana is the last state in the nation still operating with a paperless voting system for most voters. Every other state has transitioned to at least some form of voter-verified paper audit trail. In fact, by the 2020 election, 93% of ballots nationwide had a paper record, and just 0.5% of jurisdictions reported using machines without them.
Louisiana stands alone—and it’s by design.
Despite receiving over $13 million in federal HAVA grants in 2018, 2020, and 2022, certified under penalty of law to be used in accordance with Title III of the act, Louisiana never fully implemented the required safeguards. Feliciano’s lawsuit includes letters from then-Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin to the Election Assistance Commission, certifying compliance while continuing to use machines that did not produce individual paper records. Ardoin later admitted that paper ballots could add integrity but also claimed they had their own risks, saying “the more you use paper, the more you have the possibility of ‘finding ballots.’”
That logic isn’t flying with election security experts.
“Digital-only voting is the most concerning method from a security standpoint,” said Susan Greenhalgh of the National Election Defense Coalition, during a panel discussion at LSU. “Paper backups allow voters to verify their choices and provide a means for auditing the results. Without them, there’s no meaningful recount.”
Greenhalgh’s concerns echo those raised in other states. In Georgia, Dominion’s ImageCast X machines—the same model used in Louisiana’s early voting—were the subject of a federal lawsuit. Plaintiffs argued the system’s QR-code ballots could be altered without voter knowledge. A judge allowed the machines to remain in use, but acknowledged the underlying vulnerabilities. In New Jersey, a similar lawsuit revealed the exact same AVC Advantage machines used in Louisiana could be hacked to alter vote tallies.
Even more troubling, Louisiana’s voting machines have turned up in private offices and unauthorized locations. In 2016, the FBI investigated a “VIP voting machine” found in a registrar’s personal office in Jefferson Parish. Feliciano’s court filings cite this case and others as evidence that the state’s lax oversight and untraceable systems open the door to manipulation—intentional or otherwise.
He’s now urging the public and the courts to consider what’s at stake.
“This recount is not just about a tax,” he said. “It’s about whether Louisiana elections can be trusted at all. If there’s no paper record, there’s no recount. And if there’s no recount, there’s no accountability.”
Feliciano successfully filed the petition and paid the required fee, securing a full recount set for Thursday. But even that “full” recount will only cover the limited paper ballots cast by mail or during early voting—meaning the vast majority of votes, cast on the paperless AVC Advantage machines, will never be auditable.
“This is proof of the problem,” Feliciano said. “Thousands of votes will remain locked inside machines that cannot be verified. We call it a recount, but we’re only counting what was printed—and most of it never was.”
For Feliciano, the recount is just the latest chapter in a long-running fight. He’s already been to the Supreme Court. He’s exposed apparent inconsistencies in state certifications. He’s documented a system he believes is failing voters at the most fundamental level. And now, he’s hoping this small but symbolic recount might force the rest of the state—and country—to finally take notice.
