Audit to check election outcomes from the 2019 Coordinated Election

Boulder County, Colo. – The public is invited to observe the Boulder County Election Division’s 2019 Coordinated Election risk-limiting audit (RLA) beginning on Saturday, November 16 along with other post-election certification activities, as detailed below.

This will be the fourth statewide risk-limiting audit performed in Colorado and our state is the first in the nation to have such a requirement. While Boulder County and all Colorado counties have conducted post-election audits since 2005, a risk-limiting audit is considered the “gold standard” test of election results.

What: Boulder County Risk-Limiting Audit

When: Saturday, November 16 (see detailed schedule below)

Where: 1750 33^rd St. Boulder, Ballot Processing Center (check in at east-side Warehouse doors – look for Ballot Processing Center sign)

Who: Open to public

The risk-limiting audit is a test that helps ensure the accuracy of election results and provides the public with evidence that election outcomes reflect the votes cast by voters on their ballots. To ensure tabulation was accurate, the process reviews how a ballot’s votes were captured at the time it was processed by comparing a sample of paper ballots with digital tallies. To learn more about risk-limiting audits, see the Secretary of State’s FAQ on the RLA.

The software that facilitates the risk-limiting audit at the state level is open source, meaning anyone can examine the code themselves and other states are welcome to learn from or build on it.

At the Boulder County Ballot Processing Center, members of the public can observe the risk-limiting audit process alongside the canvass and audit board members (the canvass board is the group of individuals who certify the election after reviewing a detailed reconciliation report on the election). Here is the schedule of activities. All activities are open to the public:

Date	Time	Activity
November 16 – Saturday	9 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.	Canvass Kick-Off Meeting
November 16 – Saturday	9:30 – 4:30 pm (or until done)	Audit Board Kick-off, ballot pull for Risk Limiting Audit, Conduct Risk Limiting Audit
November 19 – Tuesday	1:30 – 3:30 pm	Canvass Board Meeting (final information review and signoff/certification of election)

Complete risk-limiting audit details and data will be available on the Secretary of State’s Audit Center after the audit is complete.

The Boulder County Elections Division expects to post complete and official election results and related documentation by Wednesday, November 20.