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Election systems use voter-verifiable paper records as an independent source of evidence. After voting, officials preserve those records, select ballots under a legally defined audit method, and compare human-readable voter selections with machine totals or electronic vote records. If the evidence does not support the reported outcome, the audit can expand and, under some procedures, lead to a full hand count.
The details are U.S.-specific and vary by state and locality. An audit may test procedures, a sample of ballots, or the agreement between paper and electronic records. A recount is different: it retabulates ballots in the relevant contest and can change the official result.
What a paper record contributes to election verification
A hand-marked paper ballot or a voter-verifiable paper record is a human-readable account of a voter’s selections. With a voter-verifiable system, the voter has an opportunity to review the printed record before casting it. Afterward, officials can inspect or manually interpret selected records and compare them with the electronic tally.
Independent evidence of voter intent
The paper record gives auditors something separate from the software, configuration, and hardware that produced the initial count. It can reveal a problem caused by programming, setup, mechanical operation, or malicious interference, provided the record itself accurately reflects what the voter intended. A second electronic tally does not provide the same independent check because both counts can depend on the same digital information.
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Why paperless systems cannot support the same audit
A system without a voter-verifiable paper record cannot support a paper-based tabulation audit of the kind described by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Repeating an electronic count may identify some processing issues, but it does not allow officials to compare the machine’s interpretation with a physical, human-readable record.
Different records support different audits
Hand-marked ballots, records printed by ballot-marking devices, and records produced by other voting equipment are not interchangeable for every audit design. The type of record determines whether officials can compare individual ballots, compare batches, or only test a broader process. A paper trail is therefore necessary for paper-based auditing, but its format and organization also matter.
How election audits work: the workflow
Although statutes differ, a post-election tabulation audit generally follows this sequence.
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- Create and cast a paper record. The voter marks a paper ballot or reviews a printed, voter-verifiable record before casting it. That record becomes the reference for checking the reported tally.
- Secure and organize records. Election officials preserve paper ballots, electronic records, and custody logs. Ballots are organized so a selected item can be located without breaking ballot secrecy. Local law controls who may handle records and when.
- Build the retrieval information. A ballot manifest catalogs physical ballots and their locations, such as a scanner, batch, container, or sequence. Comparison audits also need cast vote records (CVRs) or batch totals that can be reliably associated with the corresponding paper.
- Select the audit material. Officials use the method required by state or local rules. A risk-limiting audit (RLA) uses a documented random-selection procedure; other audits may select a fixed number of precincts, batches, or ballots.
- Interpret and compare. Auditors manually interpret the selected paper records and compare those interpretations with machine totals, CVRs, or batch records. Discrepancies are evaluated under the adopted rules. In an RLA, insufficient evidence can require an expanded sample and, ultimately, a full hand count.
- Report and complete certification. The jurisdiction publishes or records the audit outcome and continues the canvass and certification process. Election-night totals can remain unofficial while valid ballots are aggregated, challenges are resolved, and required checks are completed.
Records and controls auditors rely on
| Record or control | Purpose in verification |
|---|---|
| Paper ballot or voter-verifiable paper record | Human-readable evidence used to assess voter intent and compare with a machine interpretation. |
| Cast vote record (CVR) | A permanent record of one voter’s votes, in electronic, paper, or another form. An electronic CVR supports ballot-level comparison only when it can be reliably linked to the corresponding paper ballot without compromising secrecy. |
| Ballot manifest | An official catalog of physical ballots and their locations. It lets auditors retrieve randomly selected ballots and is described by the EAC as required for an RLA. |
| Random seed | A number used to generate the random sequence for selecting ballot cards. The EAC’s RLA terminology describes a seed of at least 10–20 digits. The seed is one part of a documented random-selection process, not a guarantee that an audit is fair or correct by itself. |
| Chain-of-custody and event records | Logs and secure handling establish which ballots were authorized, cast, transported, counted, and reviewed. |
Voting-system guidance also identifies useful design capabilities: exporting CVRs in an interoperable format, associating CVRs with paper while preserving secrecy, and producing manifests that identify location by scanner, batch, or sequence. These are implementation considerations, not evidence that every jurisdiction uses the same technology.
Audit types and what each one checks
| Approach | What is checked | Records needed | How much is counted | Result it can support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Procedural or compliance audit | Whether required steps, controls, and policies were followed. | Logs, forms, custody documentation, equipment or process records; a ballot comparison is not necessarily required. | The procedures or records specified by law. | Evidence about compliance with the required process, not necessarily proof that vote totals match paper. |
| Traditional post-election tabulation audit | Whether a selected set of paper ballots retabulates to the reported totals. | Voter-verifiable paper and the records needed to identify the selected ballots. | A fixed or legally specified sample, with scope and size set locally. | Evidence about the accuracy of the sampled tabulation. |
| Risk-limiting audit | Whether sampled evidence supports the reported winner under a prespecified statistical risk limit. | Voter-verifiable paper, a usable manifest, and records appropriate to the chosen RLA form. | A random sample that can expand when the evidence is insufficient. | Statistical evidence supporting the reported outcome at the chosen risk limit, or a trigger for more counting. |
| Full recount | The vote total for every properly cast ballot in the relevant contest. | All eligible ballots and the procedures required by recount law. | Every ballot, rather than a sample. | A retabulated total that may change the official result. |
The EAC’s national survey says jurisdictions use procedural, traditional, risk-limiting, tiered, and combined approaches. There is no single national audit standard, so the table describes general distinctions rather than a universal U.S. procedure.
What is a risk-limiting audit?
An RLA is a statistical audit that samples ballots or voter-verifiable records to test a reported contest outcome. The election authority chooses the risk limit before the audit. The risk limit is the largest statistical probability, under the audit’s assumptions, that an incorrect reported outcome is not corrected by the audit.
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What the risk limit does—and does not—mean
Suppose an audit uses the EAC report’s explanatory example of a 5% risk limit. If the reported outcome is wrong, the procedure has at most a 5% chance of failing to correct it under the example’s assumptions, and at least a 95% chance of correcting it. This is not a universal performance statistic, a prediction that a particular election is wrong, or a guarantee that the reported winner is correct.
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- Ballot-polling audit: Officials randomly select ballots and interpret the votes without relying on machine CVRs. This can be useful when CVRs cannot be efficiently linked to individual ballots.
- Ballot-level comparison audit: Each selected paper ballot is compared with its corresponding CVR. Reliable linkage between the two records is essential.
- Batch-level comparison audit: Auditors compare records and paper ballots at the batch level when individual ballot association is not available or is not the adopted design.
Why there is no universal RLA sample size
NIST explains that sample size typically depends on the reported margin of victory. It also depends on the contest, the audit design, the risk limit, the available records, and discrepancies found in sampled ballots. A close contest generally requires more evidence than a wide contest under otherwise comparable conditions, but local law and the adopted statistical procedure determine the actual sample. Any fixed number presented without those qualifications would be misleading.
What happens when evidence is insufficient
If the sampled records do not provide enough evidence for the reported outcome, the adopted RLA procedure can draw additional ballots. Continued discrepancies or inadequate evidence can lead to a full hand count. The audit is therefore an escalating check, not a one-time assurance that ends regardless of what the sample shows.
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How paper ballots verify machine results in practice
Consider a contest in which scanners report totals for two candidates. Auditors select ballots using the jurisdiction’s method, read the voter marks on each selected paper record, and compare those interpretations with the scanner total or the associated CVR. If the paper and electronic records agree within the method’s rules, the sample provides evidence supporting the reported outcome. If they disagree, officials investigate the discrepancy under local procedures and an RLA may require a larger sample.
The comparison must use the record that reflects voter intent. A CVR that cannot be reliably matched to the correct paper ballot cannot support a ballot-level comparison merely because both records exist. Likewise, a manifest that does not accurately describe where ballots are stored makes random retrieval and verification difficult.
Audit versus recount: a critical distinction
An audit asks whether evidence or required procedures support the reported result. It may examine a sample, batches, electronic-to-paper matches, or compliance records. A recount retabulates every properly cast ballot in the contest covered by the recount law. NIST describes a full recount as lengthy and manual, and notes that manual work can itself introduce errors. Because a recount produces a new tabulation, it can change the official result; an audit may instead conclude that the existing result is supported at a defined level of evidence.
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Security, secrecy, and retrieval requirements
Finding the selected ballot
Auditors must be able to locate a randomly selected ballot without exposing how an individual voted. Manifests, container labels, scanner and batch identifiers, and sequence information provide the map from a random selection to a physical record.
Preserving ballot secrecy
Linking a CVR to paper is useful for comparison audits, but the association must not reveal a voter’s identity or permit anyone to infer that person’s selections. Jurisdictions design storage, numbering, exports, and access controls to support verification while preserving secrecy.
Maintaining custody evidence
Secure transport, restricted access, tamper-evident procedures where required, and event logs help establish that the ballots reviewed are the authorized ballots cast in the election. These controls support confidence in the audit’s evidence; they do not replace the need to interpret the paper records.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhat an election audit can and cannot prove
- It can provide: evidence that required procedures were followed; evidence that sampled paper records agree with reported totals; or, in an RLA, statistical support for a reported outcome at a prespecified risk limit.
- It cannot automatically provide: a guarantee that every error was detected, proof that an election is mathematically certain to be correct, or a substitute for a recount when the law requires every ballot to be retabulated.
- It depends on the paper: if the voter-verifiable record does not reflect voter intent, comparing it with the machine count cannot establish what the voter meant.
- It depends on implementation: a missing or inaccurate manifest, broken custody records, or unusable CVR linkage can limit what conclusion the selected evidence supports.
Who sets the rules and when results become final
State statutes, local regulations, and election-administration procedures determine the audit method, timing, sample, public observation rules, and response to discrepancies. The EAC’s survey page, dated December 23, 2025, emphasizes that the United States has no single national auditing standard. The EAC’s election-administration guidance, dated April 2025, describes the need for a paper record for post-election tabulation audits, while NIST’s auditing use case and its “Gentle Introduction” explain core RLA concepts rather than prescribing every jurisdiction’s current rule.
Initial election-night totals are not necessarily certified outcomes. During canvassing, officials aggregate valid ballots and complete required checks before certification. The EAC’s canvass and certification guidance is dated July 30, 2026. Anyone seeking the procedure for a particular race should consult that state’s or locality’s election office, including its rules for audit type, public notice, observation, and recounts.
How audit requirements have evolved
The EAC reported that lawmakers introduced more than 68 post-election audit bills in 29 states during 2021, with at least nine signed into law at the time of that report’s publication. That figure is a historical legislative count, not a current count of states requiring audits and not a measure of how effective audits are. It illustrates why readers should check the law governing the specific election rather than assume a national rule.
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