Audits
Audits are conducted after local certification but prior to State Election Certification. Whereas State Law only requires a Risk Limiting Audit, Floyd County Board of Elections and Voter Registration conducts a 100% audit of all ballots cast in the election for one or more selected races, meaning Absentee In-person, Absentee by Mail, and Election Day ballots. The process which goes beyond the requirements set forth by the State of Georgia would be adapted as necessary.
Audit teams are comprised of two Floyd County poll workers who are only authorized to audit ballots for polling locations where they did not work during the Election being audited. The audits are open to the public for observation. The audit teams are clearly numbered as are the vote choice bins for ease of observation by the public. Each audit team is given a batch or partial batch of ballots by the designated librarian and must attest whether the batch was sealed upon receipt. Each member of the team is required to read the vote cast on the ballot of the race being audited aloud. The ballot, after being verbally verified by both members, is placed in a bin labeled with the corresponding choice of the voter. Once all ballots given to the team have been sorted, the team then batches the ballots by ten and tallies the vote count on the audit tally sheet. One member of the team transcribes the tallies on the tally sheet and both members of the team sign off. The tally sheet is the presented to Floyd County Election Office staff and the appointed observers for comparison of the audit tallies to the tapes printed at the polling location and the Statement of Votes Cast. If there is any discrepancy, the batch must be recounted and/or given to a secondary auditing team for verification. The audit teams are not given the official vote tally until after the batch has been verified and resealed in order to provide an unbiased counting process. For the teams auditing the batches required by the state’s Risk Limiting Audit, the tally numbers are then turned into the state in the manner prescribed by The Secretary of State. Once the tallies have been verified by designated observers and staff, the batch is resealed and custody is returned to the librarian.
Audits are conducted in accordance with all applicable state and federal law and using best practices, which include but are not limited to:
- Only red pens are permitted inside the auditing space as to maintain the integrity of the ballots.
- All auditors and observers must sign an oath. Monitors must sign a check-in sheet.
- Name tags are to be worn by auditors at all times with accompanying verification of oath completion.
- Ballots are to remain in secure chain of custody as prescribed by State Laws, Rules, and Regulations.
- Monitors are only to communicate with Election Staff, no one is authorized to communicate with any auditor during the conduct of the audit.
- Observers and Monitors must remain quiet while in the auditing space.
- All sorting bins, and audit teams must be clearly labeled to facilitate ease of observation.
- All auditors, monitors, and observers must receive instruction by FCBOER staff upon entering the audit space.
- Auditors are not authorized to audit any batch from a location in which they worked during the Election Event unless unavoidable. No two members of the same polling location may be on the same audit team. No two members of the same audit team can be related, defined as mother, father, grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, spouse, son, daughter, niece, nephew, grandchild, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, or an individual residing in the household of such auditor.
- FCBOER staff may create such rules and regulations as deemed necessary for the conduct of the audit so long as such rules and regulations are not in conflict of pertinent O.C.G.A. and rules and regulations set forth by the governing body.
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