Virginia Beach Office of Voter Registration & Elections Participating in Risk-Limiting Audit Following November 2024 Elections

The Virginia Beach Office of Voter Registration & Elections will perform a risk-limiting audit for the U.S. Senate race on Wednesday, Nov. 20, and possibly for a randomly selected Congressional district race on Thursday, Nov. 21, and Friday Nov. 22.

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.

“Risk-limiting audits are a routine process defined in the Code of Virginia to reassure voters that their vote has been appropriately counted and the outcome of the race is correct,” said Virginia Beach General Registrar Christine Lewis.

The U.S. Senate race audit will begin at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 20, in the Clerk of Courts Office at Building 10 of the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, 2425 Nimmo Parkway.  If selected, the Congressional district race audit will begin at 10 a.m. on Nov. 21 and Nov. 22 in the same location. The Virginia Department of Elections will make the selection to determine which Congressional race will be audited.

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 and others).
• 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.