LANSING, Mich. — The Lansing community was invited to observe a new post-election audit Monday morning.
Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope partnered with the Secretary of State's Bureau of Elections, other local election officials and national election security experts to conduct a risk-limiting audit of the May 7, 2019 Lansing School District Special Election.
After checking 337 randomly selected ballots as part of a new election audit pilot, Swope declared the Lansing School Millage Election results are confirmed accurate.
“It was great to work with election officials at the national, state, county and local level to develop best practices to confirm election results,” Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope. “Each election we learn more, and the City of Lansing will be very experienced by the Presidential Election in November 2020.
Nationally, risk-limiting audits are considered to be the gold-standard method for confirming results. This type of audit uses statistical methods that can detect possible discrepancies in areas that may need further attention due to factors such as human error, possible manipulation, cyber attacks,or a variety of other things.
These audits also provide a check on voting machines to make sure the results they are giving are correct.
"Unfortunately, today's realities require election administrators to be even more vigilant," Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope said. "I am glad to pioneer a new tool for the City and for other municipal clerks in Michigan to use to protect our elections. Pairing our current election security measures with a robust post-election audit to check election results is a common-sense step forward."
Swope piloted this new type of audit in Michigan after the 2018 general election in November.
The risk-limiting audit process is designed to allow citizen participation and observation of the audit.
The audit began at 9 a.m. Monday at the Lansing City Clerk Unit located at 2500 South Washington Avenue.
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