Audit to check election outcomes from the 2020 Presidential Primary Election

Boulder County, Colo. – The public* is invited to observe the Boulder County Election Division’s 2020 Presidential Primary Election risk-limiting audit (RLA) beginning on Saturday, March 14 along with other post-election certification activities, as detailed below.

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. Colorado has been conducting risk-limiting audits since 2017 and was the first state in the nation to conduct a statewide version.

What: Boulder County Risk-Limiting Audit
When: Saturday, March 14 (see detailed schedule below)
Where: 1750 33rd Street in Boulder – Ballot Processing Center
(check in at east-side Warehouse entrance)
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 FAQs 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 upon 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:

• Saturday, March 14, 9:30 a.m. – Canvass Board Kick-off Meeting
• Saturday, March 14, 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. or until done – Audit Board Kick-off, Conduct Risk-Limiting Audit
• Tuesday, March 24, 1:30 p.m. – Canvass Board Meeting (final presentation and sign-off of election) Edited 3/20 - This will now be remote. Please email Vote@BoulderCountyVotes.org to receive login details to watch.

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 no later than Thursday, March 26.

* Due to the current public health advisories regarding COVID-19, we do recommend that you refrain from attending this audit in-person if you are currently ill, have recently been ill, or have recently traveled. This is to minimize the spread of illness, particularly for those people at higher risk of becoming very ill, including older adults and people with compromised immune systems. As noted above, the report of the audit results and related material will be posted on our website, and we are also available for follow-up questions on the RLA.