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North Carolina counties would face post-election audits
The North Carolina bill would let the State Auditor review voter rolls, equipment testing, absentee-ballot records and other controls after each general election is certified. It says those findings could not be used to overturn the result.
In North Carolina, the State Auditor would get a new role after each general election, with authority to pick counties for post-election audits once the results are certified. The proposal would put the auditor inside the machinery of election oversight, not to rerun the vote, but to examine how the system performed.
The audits would be aimed at election system and control checks. They would be added on top of existing audit procedures, and the bill says they would not replace other election rules already in state law.
What the auditor can look at
The review could reach voter-roll accuracy and compliance with list-maintenance rules, along with how voting equipment is tested before ballots are counted. It would also cover the ballots used in testing, plus the storage and maintenance of that equipment.
The auditor could examine records of ballots distributed, ballots voted, poll book records and ballots tabulated. Other targets include chain-of-custody records for absentee ballots, the provisional-ballot log, the disposition of absentee ballots, voter outreach and education activities, and voter-assistance logs and records.
The guardrails around the review
The bill says every county board of elections would have to be audited within a reasonable time, even though the auditor would decide which counties to visit and how many audits to conduct. If a review turns up an error, inefficiency or vulnerability, the county board would have to file a fix-it plan with the auditor, the State Board of Elections and county commissioners.
The bill also draws a hard line around the results. Findings from these audits could not be used as grounds to challenge the final outcome of an election, and any possible evidence of a state or federal law violation would be referred through the usual process.