A 100% audit of elections results began today, and will likely take through Friday to finish to ensure that everything is on the up-and-up with the numbers already tallied.
Volunteers took to an office area at the Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting room at the PCPD Headquarters along with Elections officials and monitors to look over every printed ballot cast during the May 21 primary.
Elections Director Noah Beck said volunteer this morning already completed the Risk Limiting Audit required by the state, and the process of the 100% audit got underway not long after.
“We will audit every ballot and every contested race on those ballots. This process is observable to the public and further monitors are a crucial part of an audit,” Beck said. “When we complete this process we strongly urge political party members and leadership as well as candidate to stop by and witness at least part of the audit.
The goal of the audit is to ensure that ballot figures match those that were reported on election night without issue on the paper ballots. Polk County’s election officials are only one of a handful in the state that conducts voluntary 100% audits.
After the audit is over, the Board of Elections is going to be gearing up for the Primary Run-off for the pair of County Commission seats. The race begins with early voting on June 10 for a week, and then on Tuesday, June 18, voters are asked to come back to the polls to vote for the District 1 and District 3 seats.
Check back for more as it becomes available.
