Media and Press Releases

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Reports 100% Accuracy for the August 3, 2021 Special Congressional Primary Election Audit

Oct 15, 2021

 

(Cleveland) - On September 6, 2021, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections performed a Risk Limiting Audit of the August 3, 2021 Special Congressional Primary Election. This audit yielded a 100% accuracy rate and mirrored the results of the official certification of the election. The audit was open to the public.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections prides itself on being a leader in Election Audit administration, having been the first county to perform Risk Limiting Audits in the state. “It’s important to promote transparency and confidence in all parts of election administration, especially audits to ensure voters know our elections are accurate,” said Anthony Perlatti, Director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

In accordance with the Kaplan-Markov method on Risk Limiting Audits, each precinct selected for the audit is split into batch types that include various categories such as Vote-by-Mail, Election Day, Provisional, and Early In-Person. Out of 513 precincts within the August 3, 2021 Election, ballots representing 38 precincts were selected at random to be audited accounting for 3,312 ballots being hand counted by politically balanced teams. The hand counted ballots were an exact match with the machine counted election results.

Prior to 2020, post-election audits were only required following general elections in even numbered years and after each presidential primary. For every election conducted in Cuyahoga County since 2008, there has been a Risk Limiting Audit.

 

Past Years

2020