News : Primary Election officially in the box, again

Benton County Auditor Hayley Rippel and Deputy Auditor Gina Edler conduct the Post Election Audit

The Primary Election is officially over, and the post-election audit of the Eldorado-Newhall precinct completed. Following the election, one precinct is randomly selected by the Secretary of State to verify that the ballots are being correctly read by the ballot machines.

The Auditor first swears in the audit board members before following procedures to open the sealed box of ballots. The box is first checked by the board members to verify that it has not been tampered with. The box is then opened and the Auditor, Hayley Rippel and Deputy Auditor Gina Edler check to verify that the number of ballots on the tally from the machine matches the number of ballots in the box. Which they did. The Board members then count the ballots to verify that they also agree.

The next step is to verify that the machine has read the votes correctly. The board members then separate the votes by the candidates voted for in the top race, which on this ballot was the Senate race. The hand-counted results matched with the machine count on this as well.

This year because of COVID-19 the number of absentee ballot requests reached 3,414 and of those 2,909 were returned via mail and 23 at the polling places. A total of 903 voters came to the polling places, and 17 voters registered on Election Day.

The Audit Board members were Dick Lange, of Atkins, who was also the Chairman of the precinct being audited, Jim Magdefrau of Van Horne, and Valerie Close, Brandon.