OKLAHOMA CITY – A post-election audit of the June 16 primary election has been authorized by State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax.
In Comanche County, the audit will be held July 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. – and on July 15, too, if necessary – at the Election Board office in the County Courthouse in downtown Lawton. The event will be open to the public.
Audits will be conducted in all 77 counties, Election Board Public Information Officer Misha Mohr confirmed for Southwest Ledger. A computer will make a random selection of races and precincts or absentee ballots, or a combination of both, that must be reviewed in each county, she said. “We try to get a good sampling from each county.”
Post-election audits have consistently proven that Oklahoma elections are safe and secure, Ziriax noted.
“The accuracy of Oklahoma election results has been confirmed, time and time again, through both manual post-election audits and candidate-requested recounts. With time-tested laws and procedures, and very accurate voting devices, Oklahomans can feel confident in their elections,” Ziriax said.
Post-election audits were prescribed by the state Legislature in 2019, and implemented by the State Election Board in 2022, “for the purpose of maintaining the security of the election system by ensuring that voting devices and software used in a particular election correctly tabulated votes.”
The law defines a post-election audit as “a manual or electronic examination of a limited number of ballots by a secretary of a county election board or other authorized election officials” after an election.