Indiana Secretary of State Holli Sullivan announced on Friday that the state will double its number of post-election audits following each general election.
Secretary Sullivan made the announcement during a new facility ribbon cutting for the Voting System Technical Oversight Program (VSTOP) at Ball State University.
The Secretary of State’s office conducts audits in partnership with VSTOP.
Following the 2020 general election, Indiana conducted five post-election audits in counties throughout the state, including in LaPorte, Madison, Marion and Vigo counties). At the conclusion of the 2022 General Election, Indiana will perform audits in 10 still-to-be-determined counties.
The Secretary of State and VSTOP will also conduct four post-election audits after each primary election.
Indiana’s post-election audits are done by manually checking a randomized sample of paper-voted ballots, according to the Secretary of State. In a post-election audit, ballots are not tallied by scanners. Every sampled ballot is hand-counted to determine if the initial machine readings are confirmed and accurate.