Virginia Beach Office of Voter Registration & Elections Participating in Risk-Limiting Audit Following November 2023 Elections

The Virginia Beach Office of Voter Registration & Elections has been selected to participate in a risk-limiting audit. The audit is being conducted following a random drawing by the Virginia Board of Elections on Nov. 15 where all Virginia Senate and House district races were placed in a container for selection.

A risk-limiting audit uses statistical methods and a manual review of paper ballots to verify that the electronic voting system accurately reported the correct outcome of an election. Risk-limiting audits are done after every November election pursuant to the Code of Virginia § 24.2-671.2.

“These types of audits are routine and serve to reassure the electorate that their vote has been appropriately counted and that the outcome of the race is correct,” said Virginia Beach General Registrar Christine Lewis.

The audit will take place at 9 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 27, in the Clerk of Courts Office at Building 10 of the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, 2425 Nimmo Parkway. This audit is for Virginia Senate District 20 and includes participation from the cities of Virginia Beach and Norfolk, in addition to Accomack and Northampton counties.

The following steps for a risk-limiting audit include:

• Creating a ballot manifest.
  • Localities will create a simple spreadsheet that lists all the containers or the batches that contain the ballots cast and how many ballots are in each batch. All types of ballots are to be included (in person, mail-in, provisional, etc.).
• Uploading the ballot manifest.
  • Once the ballot manifest is completed, localities will upload the spreadsheet into audit software.
• Ballot Retrieval lists.
  • Localities will receive a list of ballots to review. The lists will include which batches to open and the ballot(s) to retrieve.
• Ballot retrieval.
  • Each locality will hold a public meeting to retrieve the ballots on the ballot retrieval list. A review board from each participating locality will retrieve ballots and record the votes on a tally sheet.
• Entering ballot tallies.
  • After retrieving the ballots, localities will enter the vote(s) cast for contest on each ballot audit software.

More information about risk-limiting audits and the associated process can be found in the Code of Virginia § 24.2-671.2.