Bill > H726

This bill requires the Massachusetts Secretary of State, in conjunction with local election officials, to conduct risk-limiting audits after every regular state primary and biennial state election. Risk-limiting audits are a manual tally of ballots that use statistical methods to ensure a high chance of correcting any electoral outcome that differs from the vote tabulating system's reported results. The audits must cover certain specified contests, like elections for federal and state offices, as well as one statewide ballot question if any appear. The audit process involves randomly selecting ballot units to manually count, with the goal of gathering enough evidence to confirm the reported outcome with 95% certainty. If the audit cannot provide this level of confidence, a full manual recount will be conducted. The results of the audits must be published online within 48 hours, and the Secretary of State must prepare an annual report on the audit findings.