February 24, 2025
Oklahoma Senate Judiciary Committee
2300 N Lincoln Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Via email
Dear Chair Howard and Members of the Committee:
On behalf of Verified Voting, I submit these comments on Senate Bill No. 147. Verified Voting is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen democracy for all voters by promoting the responsible use of technology in elections. Since its founding by computer scientists in 2004, Verified Voting has promoted voter-verified paper ballots and routine, rigorous post-election audits to check the accuracy of computerized voting systems. We support this measure’s intent to create a statutory requirement for routine post-election audits in Oklahoma and also offer a suggestion in alignment with best practices.
Currently, the Secretary of the State Election Board has the authority to conduct post-election audits, but there is no requirement that audits be conducted. SB 147 would require that audits take place after general, primary, presidential primary, and runoff primary elections. Oklahoma already conducts post-election audits on a routine basis, so solidifying this practice in statute is both commonsense and a step forward for election security in the state.
A post-election audit is defined in the bill as “a manual or electronic examination of ballots by a secretary of a county election board or other authorized election officials following an election.” We would suggest revising the definition of a post-election audit so that it only allows a manual examination of ballots. This change would reflect how Oklahoma currently conducts its audits and would also accord with best practices. Experts agree that post-election audits should be conducted with a manual hand-to-eye examination of the paper ballots. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommend, “Audits of election outcomes should include manual examination of statistically appropriate samples of paper ballots cast (emphasis added).”
Thank you for considering our comments. We would be pleased to provide any additional guidance as Oklahoma considers election audit legislation.
Respectfully submitted,
Chrissa LaPorte
Deputy Policy & Strategy Director