DETROIT — In early December, the Michigan Bureau of Elections announced and commenced the first stages of the state’s post-election audits.
According to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, these are the most comprehensive post-election audits in Michigan’s history with a statewide risk-limiting audit in addition to procedural audits.
Each of these audits ensures election protocol, procedures and results are sound in Michigan. Here are some answers to questions about the post-election auditing process.
— What is the purpose of an election audit?
According to Michigan’s Post-Election Audit Manual, the process verifies that Michigan law and election procedures were followed correctly before, during and after Election Day. This includes reviewing voted ballots by hand to make sure tabulation equipment worked and gave correct results.
— What kind of audits does Michigan perform?
The Michigan Election Security Advisory Commission published an October 2020 report that details the two types of post-election audits: procedural and tabulation audits.
Procedural audits verify that election procedures are followed by reviewing election processes, machines and ballots in a jurisdiction. Procedural audits seek to examine clerical errors made on or before election day. For instance, they review poll books and ballots to determine why numbers didn't match. This gives local clerks a chance to prevent similar errors in future elections with updated protocol, Benson said in an op-ed piece published last month in the Detroit Free Press.
Tabulation audits randomly select precincts in a jurisdiction and recount all of their paper ballots by hand to confirm the accuracy of ballot tabulation machines.
Through Proposal 3, the statewide referendum that, among other things, implemented same-day registration and no-reason absentee voting, Michigan can audit tabulators statewide using risk-limiting audits. In these audits, the state selects a statistically significant number of ballots to hand count to confirm the tabulation and an election's result.
Benson said in the op-ed piece that the state's first such audit took place this year after the March presidential primary election. She wrote: "The effort demonstrated the results of our elections are accurate and provided an extra layer of security as we prepared for November's election."
Before the introduction of risk-limiting audits, the only way to conduct a statewide review of ballots was a hand recount, according to the state's audit manual.
“A successful RLA tells us the winner would still win even if we had counted all the ballots by hand,” said Monica Childers, a project manager at the non-partisan nonprofit VotingWorks.
— What’s the difference between an election audit and a recount?
An audit’s purpose is to make sure proper election procedures were followed and that tabulators are accurate. A recount is to ensure ballots were properly counted. According to Michigan Election Law Act 116 of 1954, an election audit cannot change election results, while a recount could.
— How does Michigan select which jurisdictions to audit?
The Bureau of Elections randomly selects precincts and races to audit. The state’s audit manual says that they can also choose additional precincts to audit at a state leve.
Benson announced in her piece that procedural audits will take place in Wayne County and other local jurisdictions where there were notable clerical errors or unexplained imbalances in precincts. Precincts and absent counting boards in more than 200 jurisdictions will undergo a procedural audit. Included in the list are all absent counter boards in Detroit and precincts in Novi, Farmington Hills, Pontiac, Troy, Roseville, Sterling Heights, Clinton Township and New Baltimore.
There will also be a zero-margin risk-limiting audit of presidential results in Antrim County, where unofficial results were initially skewed because of a programming error by the local clerk. All ballots will be hand counted and compared to machine-tabulated results, the release said.
— What if discrepancies are found while auditing? Will there be a recount of ballots?
A recount will not occur if errors are found while auditing. These will be used as a training point for local clerks for future elections. The Bureau of Elections can assign video tutorials, online courses and reference documents to local election officials to correct procedures, according to the state’s audit manual.
Any credible evidence of fraud must be submitted in writing to the Bureau of Elections. It is then sent to the Michigan Attorney General’s office for further investigation.
— Why wait until after certification to conduct an audit?
Audits are performed after election results are certified because Michigan law prohibits access to ballots and other election materials for an audit before then.
— Are audit results available to the public?
Depending on the scope of the audit and the jurisdictions involved, audit results are either announced publicly or made available when requested, said Jake Rollow, Benson’s director of communications.
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(Mikhayla Dunaj is one of the Detroit Free Press' Election SOS Fellows, a program by Hearken and the American Press Institute to expand coverage of the 2020 election.)
