{"id":5209,"date":"2025-03-07T10:26:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T15:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bsu.edu\/vstop\/?page_id=5209"},"modified":"2026-06-15T10:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:02:41","slug":"post-election-audits","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bsu.edu\/vstop\/post-election-audits\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Election Audits"},"content":{"rendered":"

POST-ELECTION AUDITS IN INDIANA<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Overview<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Secretary of State in coordination with VSTOP conducted the State’s first post-election audit pilot in Marion County in 2018. In 2019, the Indiana Legislature authorized the Secretary of State (SOS) to conduct Risk-Limiting Audits (RLA), now amended as Post-Election Audits (PEA), in Indiana. Since the pilot RLA in Marion County, VSTOP has continued to grow and fine-tune PEA policies and procedures. Audits began, and have remained, voluntary through a designation process. County Election Boards, complete and sign a unanimous resolution, requesting audit designation to the SOS. The SOS then approves their designation and allows VSTOP to conduct the audit. As VSTOP has expanded this activity, county-level interest in PEAs continues to grow year-after-year. VSTOP has now conducted 42 Post-Election Audits in 38 Indiana counties (Clark, Lake, Marion, and Porter have been audited twice). All PEAs conducted in Indiana have affirmed the voting systems functionality resulting in correctly reported election outcomes for each audited contest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The “Audit Soup” Analogy<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n

When cooking a pot of soup, do you eat the entire pot when taste testing? You probably try a spoonful, stir it around, and try another. You won\u2019t get the exact same bite each time, but after a few tasty tries, you deem the whole pot of soup delicious! This is exactly what the audit process is doing. By inspecting a sample of ballots, recording the results, and using a bit of statistics, we can confidently say the outcome of that election was correctly tabulated and reported.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/h2>\n

Why Do We Do Post-Election Audits?<\/strong><\/h2>\n