The Forsyth County Board of Elections will hold a Hand-To-Eye count of ballots audit on November 5, 2021, at 10:00 am. The State Board of Elections has randomly selected precinct 101- Bethania Moravian Church and all absentee by-mail ballots for the November 2, 2021, Municipal Election. The sample audit count is required by statute and helps ensure the reliability of election results tabulated by a machine. The audit is a comparison of the machine counts with hand-to-eye counts completed as a test to ensure voting equipment read the voter's choices accurately.
Which contest is to be counted: Generally it will be the top contest in each ballot style in the selected sample (e.g. precinct, one-stop site). The statute, G.S. § 163-182.1(b)(1), requires that the voting sites selected “shall be one or more full precincts, full counts of mailed absentee ballots, full counts of one or more one-stop early voting sites, or a combination.” The ballot item selected for the sample audit shall be a statewide ballot item. When there is no statewide ballot item, as is the case for the current election, a county board of elections should use the ballot item at the top of the ballot. In some cases, a county board may need to conduct the sample audit of more than one contest on the ballot, if no single ballot item is on each ballot in the precinct. This is necessary in order to ensure that every ballot in the voting site is included in the sample audit count, as required by statute.
The audit will be held in the Cooper-Caldwell Board Meeting Room in the Forsyth County Government Center located at 201 N. Chestnut Street, Winston-Salem. Members of the public may join the audit in person; In-person attendees will be required to wear a mask in accordance with the Forsyth County COVID-19 protocols.
For additional information please contact the Forsyth County Board of Elections at (336)703-2800.