El Paso County to participate in statewide election audit
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - The El Paso County Clerk's Elections Department will participate in a Risk-Limiting Audit (RLA) on Tuesday.
"This robust sophisticated post-election audit allows officials to compare a sample of paper ballots against digital tallies to verify results were tabulated correctly," wrote the Clerk and Recorders Office in a release. "Due to the high level of statistical probability, this audit confirms election results have not been manipulated and reassures a level of confidence in testing for election results."
According to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office, a bipartisan audit board will be chosen to examine randomly selected ballots to ensure what the voting system recorded matches what the ballot actually says.
This audit process is nothing new. All counties in Colorado that use machines to tally votes have been participating in Risk-Limiting Audits since 2017, according to the secretary of state's office.
Of note, however, is that El Paso County was victim to an alleged password leak this election year.
Back in October, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced there was a hidden section of voting machine passwords included on the state website. Of those impacted were eight El Paso County machines, according to officials.
While the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder and Recorder Steve Shlieker expressed upset with the Secretary of State's Office for the error, he told KRDO13 that the machines could not be hacked since they are not internet-enabled.
Tuesday's audit will be open to the public. Elections officials and audit board members will begin at around 8:30 a.m. at the Citizens Service Center.
