LANSING, MI – Over the next month, state and local election officials will audit Michigan’s 2022 general election, checking the accuracy of results and security of procedures.
These more than 200 audits across counties, cities and townships will see Bureau of Elections staff and county clerks review ballots and election administration in randomly selected precincts and identify best practices for future elections.
“It is somewhat like a recount, but it is not a recount,” said Michigan elections director Jonathan Brater. “What we’re doing is counting enough containers across the state to make sure that – within a statistical level of certainty – we’re confident that the tabulators got the proper result.”
Brater watched Thursday as a handful of local election officials and bureau staff rolled a 10-sided die to determine which batches of ballots will be hand-counted to check the accuracy of Michigan’s vote tabulation machines.
The string of 20 random numbers will be put into computer software called Arlo that determines which precincts will be audited.
People should expect small differences between the hand counts and the tabulator results, Brater said, because humans can catch things on ballots – like a faintly filled in oval – that the machine could not. However, he assured, machines still count more accurately than people do.
“This is all an example of the way we can use our paper ballots that are kept after the election to verify that our machines are accurate,” Brater said.
Auditing results and procedures is a regular function after statewide elections. Two years ago, audits “confirmed the integrity and accuracy of the 2020 general election,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office said then, refuting false claims of a widely fraudulent election or one stolen from former President Donald Trump.
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Tabulators are tested prior to each election, and the accuracy of many in 2022 was confirmed by a partial hand-recount of Proposals 2 and 3 last month in 43 counties. Brater said the statewide audit would have happened in December if not for that recount.
Upcoming local audits will be open to the public, and residents can contact their city, township or county clerk for more information. Benson’s office will publish the list of jurisdictions to be audited when it is finalized.
“The 2022 election drew record-breaking turnout and unanimous, bipartisan certification from the Board of State Canvassers,” Benson said in a statement. “We have confidence the auditing process will ensure we are able to build on that success as clerks throughout the state prepare for the next round of elections this year and next.”
The Bureau of Elections expects all audits to be completed by Feb. 17. Results will be shared with the Board of State Canvassers in a public meeting.
Audits can also lead to improved training, procedures and laws for future elections. After the 2020 audit, Benson called on state lawmakers to give clerks two weeks to process absentee ballots before Election Day. They instead got two days of preprocessing in a deal struck by the then-Republican majority and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
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