Freedom Corner: CT Tabulator Audits Assure That Every Vote Counts
After each primary and general election, the Secretary of State of Connecticut orders audits of selected voting precincts in the State as part of a process to assure that vote tabulating machines are operating correctly and are recording results accurately. Five percent of the state’s voting precincts are subject to the audit, as prescribed by Connecticut General Statutes 9-320f.
Tara Chozet from the Secretary of the State’s office educated us on how these towns are picked. Essentially, it is a roll of the dice, literally. There are a set of 3 dice with 10 sides each. Every town is given a number based on an alphabetized list of all towns in CT. Then each voting precinct within each town is given a number. The dice are rolled 3 times. The first number rolled represents the town (wherever that number is on the alphabetized list). The next two rolls represent the precinct number within that town.
Election integrity is a foundation of democracy and audits are just one part of a system of checks and cross-checks before, during and after each election that ensure integrity. When Connecticut voters cast their ballots, they can be confident that their vote is being accurately counted.
This year, Goshen was selected for the audit.
The notification began with a notice to Registrars of Voters and the Town Clerk for the selected precincts. The following is a portion of the notice sent out after this past November’s election:
Precincts Selected for 2023 Municipal General Election Audit
Dear Registrars of Voter and Town Clerks,
As you know, state law requires that 5% of all voting precincts have their machine totals audited following any election or primary. Yesterday, Secretary Thomas randomly selected 39 voting precincts to have their machine totals audited for the November 2023 municipal general election. Secretary Thomas also selected 15 alternate precincts in case any of the 39 precincts cannot be audited for any reason (see below).
Next steps and Procedures
The next step in the process is for municipal clerks to randomly select the offices on the ballot that will be subject to the audit. Note: Not every office on the ballot is audited. Town clerks are instructed to select 3 offices for audit, at random.
Timing
Towns may conduct the audit on or after the 15th day after the election, which is November 22, 2023… For towns that do not use UConn’s audit station, we ask that you still conduct your audit no later than December 6, 2023.
In response, Goshen Town Clerk Barbara Breor published the following Legal Notice:
Notice
Town of Goshen
The Town of Goshen will be holding an audit of the November 7, 2023 Municipal Election on Monday, December 4, 2023 at 1:30 in the Town Hall Conference Room.
The Town Clerk will draw offices to be audited before the audit begins.
This audit will be a hand count of all ballots cast for the November 7, 2023 election.
According to Breor, “the recount is being done because the Secretary of the State has to have a recount of 5% of all polling places (this went into effect with the tabulators). Goshen was lucky enough to be pulled by the SOTS [Secretary of the State] office. Three offices will need to be drawn and it is a hand count of the ballots.” Ms. Breor noted it was the third time in her recollection that Goshen has been selected for tabulator recount, meaning that voting tabulations are checked to ensure all votes were counted.
The procedure for randomly selecting the offices to be audited began by printing the names of each office on a piece of paper (e.g., Planning & Zoning Commission, Fire Commissioners, Board of Finance, etc.) folding them and placing them in a box.
“The box was mixed and I reached up and drew out: First Selectman, Town Treasurer and Fire Commissioners. Then we showed (that) all the other offices were in the box at the end of the audit,” stated Ms. Breor.
The Registrars of Voters then gather the Moderator and the people who will be counting ballots. One representative from each party looks at each of the ballots. Nanci Howard, one of the Registrars of Voters, provided further information on this process:
“It is not called a recount. It is an audit of the tabulator. What you are looking for is how accurate the tabulators count the ballots. We hand counted 3 offices that were picked randomly by the Town Clerk. We worked in teams of 2, of different parties. They (in turn) were in charge of looking at the ballot and looking for discrepancies of why a ballot might not have been counted. There were a few questionable ones but [with] everyone working together, we all agreed the tabulator counted the vote [accurately]. The Registrar's budget is responsible for paying for the Audit.”
“It went very well. It took about 2½-3 hours. We recounted 1070 ballots by hand,” Howard said.
In conclusion, the voters of Connecticut can be assured that their votes are counted fairly and accurately.
