In Missouri, the Code of State Regulations states that election authorities must do a post-test to be sure ballots are tabulated correctly before results are certified.
Before each election, bipartisan teams conduct public logic and accuracy testing of the accessible voting equipment used to mark ballots and the digital scan voting equipment used to tabulate ballots, said Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller. After an election, those tests are done again. But the manual recounts are done as well.
“After the election, you’re going to do a post-test — same test you did prior to the election, and that is that we're going to take a test deck that's been hand counted," he said, "and for each polling location and the county itself, because we have our absentee voting and polling locations, you're going to run that test deck through every tabulator, and you're going to ensure that that tabulator is accurately and logically counting. And so you have a bipartisan team that does that after the election. We do the exact same thing just to make sure nothing happened in terms of the coding, if there was any issues that might have occurred between the testing before and after the election.”
State regulations require that races in no less than 5% of precincts be hand counted. Those are randomly drawn by a bipartisan team on election night, Schoeller said. The time and location of that random drawing must be posted by election officials no later than 48 hours prior so that members of the public who wish to witness the drawing can do so.
The recounts must include certain randomly selected contested races and ballot issues. They must also include one contested race or ballot issue randomly selected from each of these categories:
- Presidential and vice-presidential electors, U.S. Senate candidates and statewide candidates
- Statewide ballot issues
- U.S. representative candidates and state general assembly candidates
- Partisan circuit and associate circuit judge candidates and all nonpartisan judicial retention candidates
In addition to those, the manual recount team must also select at least one contested race or ballot issue from all political subdivisions and special districts, including the county, in the selected precincts.
On that same day, if the difference between results for candidates in a race is less than one half of 1%, that race is hand counted by a bipartisan team as well. For example, in April, the Willard mayoral race ended in a tie.
“We take all of the precincts that were voted on for the mayoral race there in the city of Willard. And you take, on election night, we will take all of the voted ballots. They will be sealed up," he said, "and then they're unsealed for that hand count. And then we have tabulation sheets. We have a tabulation sheet that, literally, one person is there counting, the other person will be marking, they'll be working back and forth, and they will have one sheet for one candidate, one sheet for the other candidate, and they'll mark that tally as they go through and ensure that the outcome was correct.”
The hand count by a team consisting of one Republican and one Democrat on the Friday following that election confirmed that the race was, in fact, a tie.
Schoeller explained how they determine who will take part in the post-election audit.
“We primarily try to work through both parties," he said, "the Greene County Republican Central Committee, the Greene County Democratic Central Committee, we work with them. And then, of course, through that we're able to find people who have the extra time to be able to come and be able to help. In terms of the pre-testing of the equipment, the post-testing and the hand count, and we do pay them, so it's not just completely volunteer, but we want to give them some compensation for the time that they’re here.”
If, during the post-election audit, they find a problem with the equipment, which Schoeller said hasn’t happened yet, they’ll address it quickly.
“Clearly when you get into a close race, sometimes the actual issues is that the machine, it's programmed to tabulate the oval that's marked for the candidate, but — give an example — sometimes you'll have a voter who will mark both ovals, but they will make clear who they intended to vote for, like with an arrow, or they'll write something like this one, or sometimes the mark is so light or the circle, the name, that's where the human eye is going to be able to read what the machine is not programmed to do," he said. "And that's where potentially you could have an outcome change. Now, clearly, if it's a coding issue, hopefully we're going to catch that when we're doing the pre-test and post-test, because we are determining during that post-test, pre-test if the coding is working correctly. But if not, that's where you're transparent with the public. You explain the issue, and you let them know. That's why we have paper ballots because if for some reason the machine's not coded correctly or there was an issue, that's why we have the paper ballots so that we ensure we get the correct outcome.”
Transparency is important to the process, according to Schoeller. And he invites anyone to watch the post-test and other parts of the election process.
“We welcome that," he said. "Anyone that wants to come and be able to observe or if they're able to come and participate as one of our people who does the post-test and hand counting, they're always welcome to do that.”
The post-election audit is usually held at the Greene County Elections Center, 1126 N. Boonville. But Schoeller says they can hold it in a bigger location if they expect more people to watch the process or, as in 2020, the world was facing a pandemic.
In November 2020, the Greene County conducted a hand count after results showed Democrat Betsy Fogle defeating incumbent Republican Steve Helms by just 80 votes. The recount was held at the University Plaza, to allow for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. But it also allowed more people to watch the process during a time when Former President Trump was questioning election integrity following his loss to President Joe Biden. When the recount was completed, Fogle ended up winning the election by 76 votes.
The post-test for the Presidential Election will be November 8, and anyone is invited to view the process.
Schoeller said post-election audits are meant to assure voters that, when election results are certified, the outcomes are correct. The test is a critical part of ensuring a fair and accurate election, according to Schoeller.
"You always want to make sure you're doing your due diligence to make sure that that machine was tabulated correctly, and so that's the critical part of the post-election work is going through and making sure that, before we certify that with the verification board, that we know that we're certifying the correct and accurate outcome," he said. "And that's important because we want the people involved. That's what I really like about our statutes here in our state. They require bipartisanship, they require participation, and it's really coming together — people that have different political ideologies. The best part about it is, oftentimes, they become friends, even though they may vote differently on the ballot. And that's when we see the best of who we are as citizens, not just in our community, but for our state and our nation.”
People have told him after watching the election process, including post-testing, that they have a greater appreciation for the work that’s done to ensure election integrity, Schoeller said.
