§ 9-211 — Audit of voter verifiable audit records

§ 9-211. Audit of voter verifiable audit records. 1. Within fifteen\ndays after each general or special election, within thirteen days after\nevery primary election, and within seven days after every village\nelection conducted by the board of elections, the board of elections or\na bipartisan committee appointed by such board shall audit the voter\nverifiable audit records from three percent of voting machines or\nsystems within the jurisdiction of such board. Such audits may be\nperformed manually or via the use of any automated tool authorized for\nsuch use by the state board of elections which is independent from the\nvoting system it is being used to audit. Voting machines or systems\nshall be selected for audit through a random, manual process. At least\nfive days prior to the time fixed for such selection process, the board\nof elections shall send notice by first class mail to each candidate,\npolitical party and independent body entitled to have had watchers\npresent at the polls in any election district in such board's\njurisdiction. Such notice shall state the time and place fixed for such\nrandom selection process. The audit shall be conducted in the same\nmanner, to the extent applicable, as a canvass of paper ballots. Each\ncandidate, political party or independent body entitled to appoint\nwatchers to attend at a polling place shall be entitled to appoint such\nnumber of watchers to observe the audit.\n 2. Within three days of any election, the board of elections or a\nbipartisan committee appointed by such board shall audit the central\ncount ballot scanners by auditing the ballots from three percent of\nelection districts that were tabulated by such scanners within the\njurisdiction of such board by that time. All provisions of this section\nshall otherwise apply to such audit. To the extent additional ballots\nare tabulated through central count ballot scanners after the initial\naudit, three percent of election districts shall thereafter be audited\nas to the additional ballots tabulated. The certification of the canvass\nshall not await the completion of such additional audit; provided,\nhowever, if upon the completion of such additional audit the criteria\nare met for the results of the audit to replace the canvass then the\nboard of canvassers shall forthwith reconvene and adjust the canvass as\nrequired.\n 3. The audit tallies for each voting machine or system shall be\ncompared to the tallies recorded by such voting machine or system, and a\nreport shall be made of such comparison which shall be filed in the\noffice of the state board of elections.\n 4. The state board of elections shall, in accordance with subdivision\nfour of section 3-100 of this chapter, promulgate regulations\nestablishing a uniform statewide standard to be used by boards of\nelections to determine when a discrepancy between the audit tallies and\nthe voting machine or system tallies shall require a further voter\nverifiable record audit of additional voting machines or systems or a\ncomplete audit of all machines or systems within the jurisdiction of a\nboard of elections. Any board of elections shall be empowered to order\nthat any such audit shall be conducted whenever any such discrepancy\nexists.\n 5. If a complete audit shall be conducted, the results of such audit\nshall be used by the canvassing board in making the statement of canvass\nand determinations of persons elected and propositions rejected or\napproved. The results of a partial voter verifiable record audit shall\nnot be used in lieu of voting machine or system tallies.\n 6. Notwithstanding subdivision five of this section, if a voting\nmachine or system is found to have failed to record votes in a manner\nindicating an operational failure, the board of canvassers shall use the\nvoter verifiable audit records to determine the votes cast on such\nmachine or system, provided such records were not also impaired by the\noperational failure of the voting machine or system.\n