OKLAHOMA CITY – Post-election audits confirmed the results of the recent special elections for state legislative seats in southwest Oklahoma and in Edmond.
The Comanche County Election Board recently audited the Dec. 12, 2023, special general election in state Senate District 32. The county election board manually recounted all 369 ballots cast in Precinct 42 plus the 309 in-person absentee (“early voting”) ballots in that race, Election Board Secretary Amy Sims told Southwest Ledger.
Republican Dusty Deevers of Elgin bested Democrat Larry Bush of Lawton in his bid to complete the three years remaining on the unexpired four-year term in SD 32. That office formerly was held by John Michael Montgomery, who resigned from the Legislature last July to become president and CEO of the Lawton Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce.
The Oklahoma County Election Board audited the results from the Dec. 12, 2023, special primary election, and the Feb. 13 special general election, in state Representative District 39 in Edmond. Republican Erick Harris won that seat in the three-way general election race.
Manual examination of ballots from four precincts and mail absentee ballots confirmed the results from those elections, too.
Audits from both contests confirmed the results from the elections “with no difference in the vote counts,” State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax announced Feb. 29. Precincts for audits in both counties were selected randomly, he reported.
Post-election audits have consistently proven that Oklahoma elections are safe and secure, he noted.
“The accuracy of Oklahoma election results has been confirmed, time and time again, through both manual post-election audits and candidate-requested recounts. The recent special legislative races are no exception. With time-tested laws and procedures, and very accurate voting devices, Oklahomans can feel confident in their elections,” Ziriax said.
Post-election audits were enacted by the state Legislature 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.” Post-elections audits are defined as “a manual or electronic examination of a limited number of ballots.”