State Audit Legislation Reference Guide

State	Status of Audit Legislation	Link to Text of Legislation	Sampling Method	Trigger	Oversight	Who Conducts the Audit?	Location of Random Selection	Types of Voting Machines in Use	Local Contact Person	Races that are Audited	Voting Units that are Audited	Timeline for Audit	Completed Before Certification?	Absentees, Provisionals and Early Voting	Is the Audit Publicly Observable?	Do the results of the audit become the official tally?	Comments from Local Activists
Alaska	Signed into law 2005	Alaska's law	Alaska uses a fixed percentage approach, auditing one precinct per county.	If a discrepancy greater than 1% is identified, then the Director of Elections may conduct a review of the entire district.	State Director of Elections	Local election officials with appointed representatives of the political parties		Primarily optical scan, some are hand counted, each precinct has one touch-screen per HAVA guidelines. For more information, see Verifed Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Alaska		Entire ballot	Precincts	As soon as possible after the election, and no later than 16 days after the election takes place.				Yes
Arizona	Signed into law 2006	Arizona's law	2% of the precincts in each county, or 2 precincts, whichever is greater. 1% of early ballots.	If a discrepancy equal or greater than the designated margin is discovered, a recount of the audited ballots will take place. If the recount verifies that discrepancy, then the audit will be expanded to include twice the orginal number of audited precincts for that county. If the expanded audit reveals a discrepancy equal or larger to the designated margin, the audit shall be further expanded to include the entire jurisdiction for the race in question.	Secretary of State	The County Officer in charge of Elections conducts the audit. Additionally, each Party Chair assigns two persons per precinct to be audited. If at least 4 counters per precinct do not show up, the audit is cancelled. County parties can opt out if they so choose.	The Central Counting Center for each County	Optical Scan Machines. Each precinct also has one DRE to meet HAVA accessibility guidelines. For more information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Arizona	Tom Ryan, Arizona Citizens for Fair Elections	One Federal race, one statewide race, one ballot measure and one legislative race. Presidential races as well, when they occur.	Randomly selected precincts. For mail-in ballots selected mixed-precinct "batches" each consisting of about 200 ballots	The hand counts prescribed by this section shall begin within twenty-four hours after the closing of the polls and shall be completed before the canvassing of the election for that county.	Yes	the county officer in charge of elections chairmen or the chairmen's designees shall randomly select one or more batches of early ballots that have been tabulated to include at least one batch from each machine used for tabulating early ballots and shall securely sequester those ballots along with their unofficial tally reports for a postelection manual audit.	Yes		"Arizona's precinct audit is a valid end-to-end audit because the hand count is checking a figure that appears in the final canvass. Our early (absentee) ballot audit, however, is not end-to-end because it checks randomly selected "batches" of mixed-precinct ballots and these batch counts do not appear in the canvass. So it checks the accuracy of the central count scanners, but not the election management software that collects and reports all the early ballot results. In order to do the latter properly, mail-in ballots would have to be sorted by precinct, something the election officials have refused to consider."
California	Signed into law 1965	California's law	One percent of randomly selected precincts or one precinct in each county, whichever is greater.	The official conducting the audit shall write a report describing any discrepancies. No further audit is required.	Secretary of State	Local Election officials	County	The state is in transition right now. For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=California		Entire ballot	Precincts			Audit includes "vote by mail" ballots, but the law is not specific.	Yes
Colorado	Signed into law in 2005	Colorado's law	For polling places and Early Voting Devices, its 5% of machines, 100% of the ballots. For absentee ballots, its at least one scanner, with 5% of the ballots (not less than 500 ballots.) If less than 500 absentee ballots are counted, than 20% of all absentee ballots are counted.	If a discrepancy is found that cannot be explained by voter error, the county clerk and recorder, in consultation with the canvassing board, must investigate and take any action deemed necessary.	Secretary of State and the State Canvass Board	County Election Officials, observed by the canvass board, consisting of the clerk and recorder and one appointee from Republican and Democratic parties in a coordinated partisan election, according to statute. In small counties the canvass board itself generally conducts the audit. The Canvass board signs the audit report.	In the Secretary of State's office, by computer	Both optical scanners and DREs, with machines from ES&S, Diebold, Hart and Sequoia. Central count and precinct count. For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Colorado	Neal McBurnett, Citizens for Verifiable Voting	The statute now says all races (not specified per county). The rules say at least two races. Actual 2007(mostly mail in ballot, local elections, nothing statewide or CD wide) audit appears to be of all races per county.	Chosen for the audit by serial number.	The random selection of machines to test is currently scheduled to happen "within twenty-four (24) hours of the close of polls"". In the case of a delayed count or delayed reporting, this should not happen until the machines are done counting and a tally has been obtained and made known. A report of the audit must be posted within 24 hours of receipt by SOS office.	Yes.		Yes	Yes	"See also the rules from the Secretary of State, e.g. 11.5.4 Post-Election Audit. They are watered down from the law, and allow partial recounts rather than actual audits." "The sampling method includes only all ballots on 5% machines by serial number. Some machines do not provide election sub tallies... sometimes these are audited by machine recount instead or by hand count of VVPAT compared to hand count of printed cast vote records from the device (generally these are identical records) The device made by HART does not even sub tally the cast vote records- so these auditsare also not audits of the actual election tally. "Early voting is done on serial numbers which overlap with precinct voting serial numbers. These serial numbers are not repeated in the pool of serial numbers for random selection, hence early voting sub tallies are usually not audited."
Connecticut	Signed into law 2007	Connecticut's law	10% of districts publicly randomly selected by the Secretary of State, 3 or 20% of races selected (not public) by selected municipal clerks (except if Governor on ballot, the Secretary of State selects races)	Discrepancies shall be investigated by the Secretary of State at his/her discretion	Secretary of State	Local Registrars of Voters	Secretary of State's office when the Governor is on the ballot. Otherwise local races are chosen by municipalities.	Diebold accuvote and OS Optical Scan For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Connecticut	Luther Weeks	In all races where the Governor is not on the ballot, the Municipal Clerk selects 3 or 20% of races to be audited in the selected districts in their municipality.	Districts	No earlier than 15 days after the election, end time varies.	Yes. Except the law also specifies a date before which the audits must not start. In the Nov 06 election the certification was before the date the audits could start. Also some towns actually swear in their candidates before even the a recount must be complete.	Currently CT does not include ballots that are counted centrally.	Yes
Hawaii	Signed into law 2005	Hawaii's Law	10% of precincts using electronic vote-counting machines	If discrepancies appear in the pre-certification audits the chief election office shall immediately conduct an expanded audit to determine the extent of misreporting in the system.	State Canvassing Board	Local Chief Election Officer		Optical Scan For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Hawaii		Entire Ballot	Precincts	Before Certification	Yes			Yes
Illinois	Signed into law 2005	Illinois' Law	5% of precincts - optical scan ballots are recounted by machine, and touchscreen ballots are counted by hand	If a discrepancy is found the local election officials must provide a a written report to the apporpriate Canvassing Board. The causes are then investigated and referred to the proper election and law enforcement authorities.	State Board of Elections	County Election Officials	State Board of Elections	DREs and Optical Scanners For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Illinois		Entire Ballot	Precincts	Prior to certification	Yes			Yes
Kentucky	Law since 1986	Kentucky's Law	3 to 5% of total ballots cast.	No trigger indicated	State Board of Elections	State Board of Elections	State Board of Elections	DREs without printers For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Kentucky		Entire ballot	Precincts
Minnesota	Signed into law 2004	Minnesota's Law	2 to 4 precincts per county, depending on county size. One of the selected precincts from each county must have had more than 150 votes cast.	If a discrepancy greater than 1/2 of 1% is identified, three more precincts in that jurisdiction and county must be audited within 2 days. If the expanded audit reveals a discrepancy greater than 1/2 of 1%, the review must expand to include the entire County. If the County-wide review reveals a discrepancy, and the number of voters in that county comprise at least 10% of voters for the affected race, a race-wide hand count must take place.	Secretary of State	County Election Officials	County Canvassing Board	Optical Scan Machines For county by county information see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Minnesota	Mark Halvorson, CEIMN	The Gubernatorial, congressional and Senate races. Presidential races when they occur.	Precincts	Must be completed within 7 days of the election	Yes	They are included as part of a selected precinct, when submitted at a precinct on election day	Yes	Yes
Missouri	Law since 1990	Missouri's Law	No less than one precinct for every 100 precincts.	No trigger is indicated.	Secretary of State and the Accuracy Certification Team	local election officials	State	Both optical scan and DREs For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Missouri		One (1) contested race or ballot issue to be manually recounted shall be randomly selected from each of the following categories, where applicable: 1. Presidential and Vice-Presidential electors, United States senate candidates and state-wide candidates; 2. State- wide ballot issues; 3. United States representative candidates and state general assembly candidates; 4. Partisan circuit and associate circuit judge candidates and all nonpartisan judicial retention candidates; and 5. In addition to the candidates and issues previously listed, the manual recount team shall select not less than three (3) contested races or ballot issues from all political subdivisions and special districts, including the county, in the selected precinct(s). When there are three (3) or fewer contested races or ballot issues within this category at a selected precinct, all shall be counted.	Precincts	Before Certification	Yes	Law is unclear
Nevada	In effect since 2004	Nevada's Law	If a county has a population of 100,000 or more, they must randomly select a number of mechanical recording devices equal to 2% of the number of mechanical recording devices with attached VVPATS used in the election or not less than 20, whichever is greater. If a county has a population less than 100,000, they must randomly select a number of mechanical recording devices equal to 3% or not less than 4, whichever is greater. There is no limit on counties if they wish to check a larger percentage of their voting machines.	No trigger is outlined.	Secretary of State	County Clerks	County	DREs equipped with printers For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Nevada		Any vote recorded on an electronic voting machine	Machines	The results of the audit must be sent to the Secretary of State within seven working days after the election.	Yes		Yes
New Jersey	Signed into law 2008	New Jersey's Law	Any procedure designed, adopted, and implemented by the audit team shall be implemented to ensure with at least 99% statistical power that for each federal, gubernatorial or other Statewide election held in the State, a 100% manualrecount of the voter-verifiable paper records would not alter the electoral outcome reported by the audit. For each election held for State office, other than Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and for county and municipal elections held in 100 or more election districts, any procedure designed, adopted, and implemented by the audit team shall be implemented to ensure with at least 90% statistical power that a 100% manual recount of the voter-verifiable paper records would not alter the electoral outcome reported by the audit. Such procedures designed, adopted, and implemented by the audit team to achieve statistical power shall be based upon scientifically reasonable assumptions, with respect to each audited election, including but not limited to: the possibility that within any election district up to 20% of the total votes cast may have been counted for a candidate or ballot position other than the one intended by the voters; and that the number of votes cast per election district will vary. Such procedures and assumptions shall be published prior to any given election, and the public shall have the opportunity to comment thereon.	If the audit reveals that a candidate’s share of votes cast has been altered by more than 1/10 of 1 percent, the Audit Team will expand the audit to the same number of precincts included in the initial audit. If the initial audit pool comprises more than ½ of all precincts included in the race, all remaining precincts will undergo an audit. The Audit Team has the right to expand the audit even further if they feel necessary after the second round of audits	The State Attorney General will appoint an “independent professional audit team”, that includes at least one member that has verifiable expertise in statistics, and at least one member with verifiable expertise in auditing. This team oversees the audit process.	Local Election Officials	The Attorney General will conduct the random selection at a public meeting.	DREs without printers For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=New%20Jersey		Federal or State office,including the offices of Governor and member of the Legislature, and for county and municipal offices selected by the Attorney General.	Districts	Districts must be selected no later than 24 hours after the election, and audit must be completed before certification.	Yes	Any ballots that are submitted at locations other than at the precinct on election day, and are counted by optical scan machines (such as votes cast by military service voters and overseas federal election voters) must be separated and bundled in groups called “audit units.” Each audit unit shall contain approximately the average number of ballots cast in the precincts within the county. Each audit unit will be assigned a unique identifying number, and will be included in the random selection process.	Yes	Yes
New Mexico	Signed into law in 2005	New Mexico's Law	2% of all vote tabulators	When there is a discrepancy greater than 1 1/2 percent, the SOS shall order a hand count of all ballots in all precincts of the legislative district in which the error was found. When a discrepancy greater than 1 1/2 percent is found on a machine used to count absentee ballots, all the ballots counted by that machine shall be recounted. No further trigger levels are indicated.	Secretary of State	County Clerks	Unsure. New Mexico's audit law will be implemented for the first time in 2008.	Optical Scan Machines For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=New%20Mexico	Paul Stokes, United Voters of New Mexico	Presidential or Gubernatorial. They never occur in the same year.	Machines	The audit must occur within five days of the completion of the county canvass.
New York	Signed into law in 2005	New York's Law - go to Election, and then 9-211	3% of voting machines or voting systems within Board's jurisdiction	The state board of elections shall promulgate regulations establishing a uniform statewide standard to be used by boards of elections to determine when a discrepancy between the manual audit tallies and the voting machine or system tallies shall require a further voter verifiable record audit of additional voting machines or systems or a complete manual audit of all machines or systems within the jurisdiction of a board of elections. Any board of elections shall be empowered to order that any such audit shall be conducted whenever anysuch discrepancy exists. The draft regulations, 9 NYCRR § 6210.18, can be found at http://www.elections.state.ny.us/portal/page?_pageid=35,1,35_26319:35_26...	New York State Board of Elections	County boards of elections conduct the audit	County Boards of Elections	Lever machines (not audited) to be replaced for the 2009 elections by precinct-based scanning in 61 of 62 counties For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=New%20York	Howard Stanislevic, E-voter Education Project	All races	machines	Within fifteen days after each general or special election, and within seven days after every primary or village election	Yes			Yes
North Carolina	Signed into law 2005	North Carolina's Law	one or more full precincts, full counts of mailed absentee ballots, full counts of one or more one‑stop early voting sites, or a combination, per county. The size of the sample of each category shall be chosen to produce a statistically significant result and shall be chosen after consultation with a statistician.	If the discrepancy between the hand‑to‑eye count and the mechanical or electronic count is significant, a complete hand‑to‑eye count shall be conducted.	State Board of Elections	County Election Officials	County	DREs and Optical Scanners For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=North%20Carolina	Joyce McCloy, The North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting	One Statewide ballot item per county OR the Presidential race	Precincts	The random selection of precincts for any county shall be done publicly after the initial count of election returns for that county is publicly released or 24 hours after the polls close on election day, whichever is earlier.	yes	Absentee and early ballots are included.		Yes
Oregon	Signed into law 2007	Oregon's law	If the margin of victory between the two candidates receiving the largest number of votes in the county is less than one percent of the total votes cast in that election in the county: 10 percent of all precincts or of ballots in at least 10 percent of all batches of ballots will be audited. When the margin is between 1 and 2%, 5 percent will be audited, and when the margin is greater than 2%, 3 percent will be audited. At the general election, no fewer than 150 ballots must have been cast in at least one of the precincts selected.	If a discrepancy greater than 1/2 of 1% is identified, the clerk shall recount the ballots to verify. If the discrepancy is then verified, the county clerk shall conduct a hand count of all ballots counted by that vote tally system. The hand count is the official tally of votes for that vote tally system.	Secretary of State	County Clerks	The Secretary of State shall select the precincts at random.	Optical Scan machines For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Oregon	Kathy Jackson, Voting Matters/Oregon	the election contest between the two candidates receiving the largest number of votes in the county, an election contest for a state office and, if possible, an election contest for a state measure.	Precincts	Must begin no later than 20 days after the election and end earlier than 30 days after the election.	Yes
Pennsylvania		Pennsylvania's law	The sample shall include at least two (2) per centum of the votes cast or two thousand (2,000) votes whichever is the lesser.)	None specified	County Board of Elections	County Board of Elections	County	DREs without printers. For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Pennsylvania	Mary Beth Kuznik, Vote PA		Votes	As part of the canvass of returns.	Yes
Washington	Signed into law 2005	Washington's law	4% of DRE machines per county, or one DRE machine, whichever is greater.	No trigger indicated	Secretary of State	The County Auditor	County	DREs For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Washington		Three races or issues - randomly selected	Machines	Prior to certification, which occurs fifteen days after a primary or special election and twenty-one days after a general election.	Yes		Yes
West Virginia	Signed into law 2005	West Virginia's Law	Five percent of precincts.	Whenever the vote total obtained from the manual count of the voter verified paper ballots for all votes cast in a randomly selected precinct: (1) Differs by more than one percent from the automated vote tabulation equipment; or (2) Results in a different prevailing candidate or outcome, either passage or defeat, of one or more ballot issues such precincts for any contest or ballot issue; then the discrepancies shall immediately be disclosed to the public and all of the voter-verified paper ballots shall be manually counted.	Board of Canvassers	The Board of Canvassers		Optical Scan and DREs For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website:http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=West%20Virginia		Entire Ballot	Precincts		Yes			Yes
Wisconsin	In effect since 2006	Wisconsin's law	A minimum of 50 reporting units will be selected by the Government Accountability Board for audit by municipal clerks. An additional 10 reporting units will be selected by the Government Accountability Board. These audits will be conducted by the Board's staff.	f the hand counts and Election Day vote tallies/totals do not match, the clerk double checks the Election Day vote tallies/totals and counts the ballots again. If the counts do not match after this recount, the difference is noted. The SEB will then contact the appropriate vendors and request an investigation. If the vendor cannot adequately explain the discrepancies, the State will suspend approval of all equipment from the vendor.	WI State Elections Board	municipalities and SEB staff	State Election Board	Optical scan and DREs with VVPAT For more detailed information, see Verified Voting's website: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&year=2008&state=Wisconsin		A minimum of four (4) contests shall be audited, including the top candidate race on the ballot (either gubernatorial or presidential). The other audited contests shall be selected randomly by the State Elections Board from all other contests that appear on the ballot, but must appear on every ballot in the state.	Reporting Units	The audit must be conducted no later than two (2) weeks after the county board of canvassers certifies the election results to the State Elections Board. The county board of canvassers may conduct the audit as part of its canvass proceedings	No		Yes