MICHIGAN, USA — Earlier this summer a new gold standard for verifying votes arrived in Lansing.
It's called a "risk-limiting audit" which means hand-counting a significant sample of ballots to ensure that election results are accurate.
According to a report published by the Brennan Center for Justice in New York City, only 22 state plus the District of Columbia have voter-verifiable paper records. That number is expected to increase to at least 24 states by the 2020 election.
"Adversaries are not just trying to attack our system but they are trying to have a negative impact on voter confidence in the administration of our elections," says Liz Howard, who serves as counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice.
"A risk-limiting audit is a procedure that election officials can do and members of the public can come and observe," Howard said. "So they can see that procedures are being done to go back to double check to make sure that everyone's vote was counted as cast."
Michigan will conduct its first state-wide risk-limiting audit during the March 10, 2020 presidential primary, marking the first time ever that risk-limiting audits will be used in a conjunction with presidential election process.
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