Pair Of Manchester Polling Places Chosen For Statewide Audit

MANCHESTER, CT — Two Manchester polling places are in the mix as the Office of the Secretary of the State Tuesday randomly selected 49 precincts from the Nov. 3 elections to have their machine totals audited.

Seventeen alternates were also chosen.

The Manchester polling places are Robertson School and the Whiton Library Auditorium.

Routine post-election audits are "one of many safeguards designed to ensure votes are counted accurately," election officials said.

Connecticut General Statutes § 9‑320f requires that 5 percent of all voting precincts have their machine totals audited. There were 973 precincts used during the General Election. Bipartisan local election officials in the 49 selected precincts will now re-tabulate the voter-marked paper ballots and compare those results with what the tabulators reported on Election Day.

"We don't wait to hear about something going wrong before we go back and check our results," Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said. "I've talked all election season about people, paper, and proof. Now we're at the paper and proof stage — going back to our paper ballots and checking whether the machines counted them accurately."

Officials in the selected precincts must complete their audits by Nov. 23 and submit their reports to the Secretary of the State.

The reports will then be forwarded to the University of Connecticut for independent analysis. UConn's findings will be returned to the secretary's office and filed with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

The findings will also be made available to the public.