Election Audits

Only DC and Massachusetts let the public see ballot markings during audit, to verify staff accuracy. Version 11/5/20, send corrections to admin@votewell.net

Tips on observing all steps in the election.

State	Method of Auditing Ballots	Number of Contests Audited	Sample Size	Do Audits Revise Election Outcomes?	Level of Discrepancy to Trigger Action	Action if Discrepancy	State Gets Report?	Law	Rules
Alabama	No audit	None
Alaska	Hand count, except small precincts	All contests	1 precinct per House district, with at least 5% of district ballots, so about 600 registered voters	Revise outcomes	1%	Expand sample to whole district (1/40th of state), all races	State gets report	Alaska Stat. §15.15.430
Arizona	Hand count	5-President, random federal, random state-wide, random legislative, ballot measure	at least 2% of precincts or 2 precincts	Revise outcomes	Statistical committee chooses cutoffs	Expand sample, up to whole county, for affected office	State gets report	Ariz. Rev. Stat. §16-602
Arkansas	No audit	None
California	Hand count, except no audit of ballots tallied after election day	All contests	1% of precincts or machines	Not revise outcomes	No rules	Report	State gets report	Cal. Elec. Code §336.5, §15360 (West 2015)
Colorado	Hand count	In each county: 1 contest in general election, 1 per party in primary,non-randomly chosen by Sec. of State	risk-limiting. 5% of machines, in sampled machines, 20% of ballots if machine has 1-500 ballots, otherwise lesser of 5% or 500 ballots	Maybe	Statistical cutoffs	Investigate + decide	State gets report	Colo. Rev. Stat. §1-7-515	Colo. Sec. of State Election Rule 25
Connecticut	Count with machines or by hand	3-President or Governor and 2 other races; 20% of races in primaries and municipal ballots	5% of voting districts	Maybe	0.50%	Investigate and if needed recount county with mix of hand and machine counts	State gets report	Conn. Gen. Stat. §9-320f
Delaware	No audit	None
District of Columbia	Hand count	4-random District-wide, 2-ward-wide, 1 any type	5% of precincts + ballots	Revise outcomes	0.25% or 20% of margin of victory	Expand sample, up to whole county, for affected office	State gets report	D.C. Code Ann. §1-1001.09a
Florida	Count with machines, independent of election, or by hand	all by machine, or 1 by hand, randomly chosen by each county	20%-100% of precincts by machine or 2% by hand	Not revise outcomes	No rules	Report	State gets report	Fla. Stat. Ann. §101.591
Georgia	No audit	None
Hawaii	Hand count, except early and absentee ballots	3-state-wide, county-wide, district-wide	10% of precincts	Maybe	Any	Expand audit until staff are satisfied with results	State gets report	Hawaii Rev. Stat. §16-42, Haw. Admin. Rules § 3-172-102
Idaho	No audit	None						Idaho Code §34-2313
Illinois	Count with machines the optical ballots, which are common, others by hand or different machine from election	All contests	5% of precincts + machines	Not revise outcomes	Any	Report	State gets report	Il. Rev. Stat. ch. 10 §5/24A-15, 10 §5/24C-15
Indiana	If requested by party chair, hand count paper ballots or use machine different from voting system, but many voters lack paper ballots	All contests	up to 5% of precincts or 5 precincts	Revise outcomes	No rules	Correct errors	No	Indiana Code §3-12-5-14, §3-11-13-39
Iowa	Hand count	1-President or Governor	?	Not revise outcomes	No rules	Report	State gets report	HB 516, enacted in 2017
Kansas	No audit, though most voters have paper ballots	None
Kentucky	Hand count paper ballots, but many counties use paperless machines	All contests	3% to 5% of precincts	Revise outcomes	No rules	Correct errors	State gets report	Ky. Rev. Stat. §117.383
Louisiana	No audit, and the state lacks paper ballots	None
Maine	No audit, though all voters have paper ballots.	None
Maryland	Independent machines re-count ballot images from election machines	All contests	100%	Revise outcomes	Any	Investigate and resolve	State gets report		Code of Md. Regs. §33.08.05
Massachusetts	Hand count	6-President, state and national Senator and Representative, random ballot question	3% of precincts	Maybe	Cast doubt on outcome	Sec. of State may expand audit	State gets report	Mass. Gen. Law Ann. ch. 54 § 109A
Michigan	No audit	None
Minnesota	Hand count	2-3-Governor + federal	3% of precincts or at least 2-4 precincts	Revise outcomes	0.5% or 2 votes	Expand samples to whole county, and if counties with 10% of state's ballots discover problems, hand-count affected race statewide	State gets report	Minn. Stat. Ann. §206.89
Mississippi	No audit, and most counties lack paper ballots	None
Missouri	Hand count	5-state-wide candidate + ballot issue, legislator, judicial, county	5% of precincts	Maybe	0.50%	Investigate and resolve	State gets report	15 Mo. Code of State Regs. §30-10.110
Montana	Hand count	4-random federal, state-wide, legislative, ballot measure	at least 5% of precincts or 1 precinct	Revise outcomes	0.5% or 5 votes	Expand sample but not full recount except in small counties with up to 6 precincts. Check machines with errors	State gets report	Mont. Code Ann. §13-17-503
Nebraska	If requested by Sec of State, method unclear	3	2% of precincts	Maybe	Unclear	Report	State gets report
Nevada	Count with machines or by hand	All contests	2% or 3% of machines	Maybe	No rules	No rules	State gets report	Nev. Admin. Code 293.255, Nev. Rev. Stat. §293.247
New Hampshire	No audit	None
New Jersey	No audit, and many voters lack paper ballots	None						N.J. Stat. Ann. §19:61-9
New Mexico	Hand count	3-4: federal, governor + closest statewide race	none in race with over 15% margin of victory, otherwise 4-165 precincts in whole state	Revise outcomes	error over 90% of the margin of victory	Expand sample, up to whole state for affected office	State gets report	N.M. Stat. Ann. §1-14-13.2 et seq.
New York	Count with machines different from voting system or by hand	All contests	3% of machines	Revise outcomes	Any	Expand sample in stages to full recount. Unclear if just the affected office	State gets report	N.Y. Election Law § 9-211 (McKinney 2015)	9 N.Y. Comp. Rules & Regs. 6210.18
North Carolina	Hand count	1-President or state-wide ballot item	statistician decides	Revise outcomes	"Significant"	Expand sample to whole county, all races	No	N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. §163-182.1
North Dakota	No audit	None
Ohio	Hand count	3-President, random state-wide, random county-wide, in general elections in even-numbered years	machines, precincts or polling places withat least 5% of votes	Revise outcomes	0.5% (0.2% if margin under 1%)	Expand sample. Sec. of State may order full recount of county	State gets report	Secretary of State Directive 2014-36,[3] 2015 Election Official Manual	settlement agreement in League of Women Voters, et al. v. Brunner, Case No. 3:05-CV-7309, US N.District of Ohio
Oklahoma	No audit, though voters without disabilities have paper ballots; voters with disabilities do not	None
Oregon	Hand count, except small precincts	2-3-heaviest vote in each county, statewide office + ballot measure	3% to 10% of big precincts (150+ votes) depending on margin of victory	Revise outcomes	0.50%	Expand sample to whole county for that vote tally system, all races	State gets report	Or. Rev. Stat. §254.529
Pennsylvania	Hand count	All contests	lesser of 2% or 2,000 ballots	Maybe	No rules	No rules	No	Pa. Cons. Stat. tit. 25 §3031.17	Directive Concerning the Use, Implementation and Operation of Electronic Voting Systems
Rhode Island	Hand count	Some	risk-limiting	Revise outcomes	Statistical cutoffs	Expand sample to full recount	Rules not yet published	R.I. Stat. Ann. §17-19-37.4
South Carolina	No audit	None
South Dakota	No audit	None
Tennessee	Count paper ballots with same method as election day, different optical scanner, but many voters lack paper ballots	1-President or Governor in general	1 to 5 precincts	Not revise outcomes	1%	Expand sample to 3% of precincts. Then no action, but audit is evidence in court	No	Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-20-103
Texas	No audit on paperless machines, which many counties use, hand count otherwise	6-Sec. of State chooses 3 races + 3 ballot items	at least 1% of precincts or 3 precincts, not paperless machines	Maybe	Any	Determine cause	State gets report	Tex. Election Code Ann. §127.201 (Vernon 2015)	Election Advisory No. 2012-03
Utah	Hand count	All contests	1% of machines	Not revise outcomes	Any	Record reasons	State gets report	Election Policy Directive from the Office of the Lieutenant Governor
Vermont	Each town counts with same method as election day, optical scan or hand count. Sec.of State randomly picks 6 towns to scan & machine-count all contests^[38]	Unknown by county. All by Sec.of State	?	Not revise outcomes	Any	Investigate	State gets report	17 Vt. Stat. Ann. §2493, §2581 - §2588
Virginia	Hand count, except early and absentee ballots	Some	risk-limiting	Not revise outcomes	Any	Analyze	State gets report	Code of VA 24.2-671.1
Washington	If parties agree or county auditor requires, then hand count sample of mail ballots, which are the vast majority	1	up to 3 precincts or 6 batches	Maybe	Any	investigate + resolve	State gets report	Wash. Rev. Code Ann. §29A.60.185, §29A.60.170
West Virginia	Hand count	All contests	3% of precincts	Revise outcomes	1% or changed outcome	Expand sample to whole county, all races	No	W. Va. Code, §3-4A-28	2016 Best Practices Guide for Canvass and Recount
Wisconsin	Hand count, except early and absentee ballots	4-President or Governor, and 3 random state contests, only in general	100 wards in whole state	Not revise outcomes	Any	If no explanation, get manufacturer to investigate	State gets report	Wis. Stat. Ann. §7.08(6)	Wisconsin Elections Commission Voting Equipment Audits
Wyoming	No audit	None

Sources:

https://www.verifiedvoting.org/state-audit-laws/ (temporarily offline)

http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/post-election-audits635926066.aspx#state

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB840

https://www.elections.maryland.gov/press_room/documents/PostElectionTabulationAuditLegislativeReport.pdf