SANTA ANA, CA –  Orange County will conduct a risk-limiting audit beginning Wednesday, May 27, 2020. 

The risk-limiting audit is a procedure that provides strong statistical evidence that the election outcome is correct, or has a high probability of correcting an outcome that wouldn't match a full hand count of the ballots. The audit itself requires human beings to examine and verify more ballots in close contests and fewer ballots in contests with wider margins.

Quote by Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley

"We conducted the first Risk Limiting Audit as an official audit used in lieu of the previously required 1% manual tally during the recent April 7, 2020 Westminster Recall Election. Conducting a risk-limiting audit is an excellent way to audit elections and provide an important check on the integrity of the election process." He continued, “This is a valuable opportunity to utilize the enhanced auditing capability of Orange County's new voting system, while at the same time ensuring that the outcomes are true and correct.”

Prior to the commencement of the risk-limiting audit the Registrar of Voters will establish the random seed for use with the audit software’s random number generator.

The seed is a number consisting of at least 20 digits, and each digit will be selected in order by sequential rolls of a 10-sided die. The Registrar of Voters will designate one or more staff members to take turns rolling the die.

Establishing the seed in this manner results in a properly random, and verifiable, selection of individual ballots for examination and audit, and ensures the integrity and statistical validity of the risk-limiting audit.

The Registrar of Voters will publish the election results to be audited, along with a cryptographic hash of their contents, prior to the seed ceremony, and will publish the seed on its website immediately after it is established.

The Registrar of Voters’ office is currently closed to the public due to the COVID-19 health orders. The public may view the entire audit process via streaming video at ocvote.com/rla

WHEN: 

• Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - 10:00 am (random seed selected by the rolling of 10-sided die)

WHERE:

• Registrar of Voters, 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, CA
• Available for public observation on the Registrar of Voters' website at ocvote.com/rla

HOW:

• Once the random seed is established the physical pulling of the actual ballots will take place and the ballot comparison audit will begin.