Mahaska County Conducts First Post-Election Audit

Mahaska County

A Mahaska County Auditors Press Release

Mahaska County conducted its first post-election audit Tuesday, Nov. 13 under a new law designed to monitor and protect election processes. The audit was a perfect match to the result recorded on election night.

Iowa law now requires that after each general election, the Secretary of State will choose, at random, one precinct in each of Iowa’s counties to be audited. County auditors must then supervise a hand count of the ballots from that precinct and compare the results from the presidential or gubernatorial election, depending on the year, to the voting machine count from election night.

In Mahaska County, the Secretary of State chose Black Oak/Scott/Leighton precinct, which votes at the Leighton Christian Reformed Church, where 349 votes were cast. Both the machine count from Tuesday night and the hand count on Tuesday afternoon showed the following breakdown: Reynolds, 302. Hubbell, 39. Porter, 7. Siegwarth, 0. Write-in, 0. Undervotes, 1. Overvotes, 0. Total, 349.

Mahaska County Auditor Susan Brown stated that this is the outcome all voters and election officials should expect, and it should strengthen the confidence Mahaska County voters have in the integrity of the election process. Extensive testing is conducted by the Auditor’s Office in advance of every election to assure that the tabulators are accurately recording the votes from the paper ballots.

Three precinct election officials, representing the two major political parties, conducted the count under the supervision of Mahaska County Auditor, Susan Brown. As required in the law, the Auditor’s Office notified the county chairs of both of the two major political parties. The process was witnessed by a representative of the Mahaska County Republicans.