Colorado Secretary of State Announces Completion of Post-Election Risk-Limiting Audit

Denver, November 20, 2019 – Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced today that Colorado county clerks have successfully completed the state’s risk-limiting audit (RLA), an important step in verifying Colorado’s 2019 Coordinated Election.

After a 20-digit number was determined by random roll of a 10-side dice at the Colorado Secretary of State’s office last Friday, that number was entered into the Secretary of State’s RLA software, establishing which ballots the counties would examine and audit. Colorado is the only state in the country to require RLAs after elections as it is both truly random and replicable, thus ensuring the integrity and statistical validity of the election.

All counties completed the audit without error, thereby concluding the results of Colorado’s 2019 Coordinated Election to be accurate. The process now heads to each county’s Canvass Boards, who will sign off on the final results and submit an official abstract of votes cast to the Secretary of State’s office by Wednesday, November 27. At that point the election will be deemed concluded with the exception of a handful of recounts in local and municipal races, which are not conducted by the Secretary of State’s office.

“I’m proud of the work our elections team and the various counties did in completing our risk-limiting audit,” said Secretary Griswold. “This process exemplifies how seriously we take the integrity of our elections and why Colorado is the gold standard for election accuracy.”

For more information on this and past audits, please visit the Audit Center on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website, www.sos.state.co.us.