13-17-506. Conduct of random-sample audit. (1) The random-sample audit must be completed at least 1 day before the official canvass by the county board of canvassers.

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Terms Used In Montana Code 13-17-506

  • Ballot: means a paper ballot counted manually or a paper ballot counted by a machine, such as an optical scan system or other technology that automatically tabulates votes cast by processing the paper ballots. See Montana Code 13-1-101
  • County audit committee: means the committee that conducts a random-sample audit in a county. See Montana Code 13-17-502
  • Election: means a general, special, or primary election held pursuant to the requirements of state law, regardless of the time or purpose. See Montana Code 13-1-101
  • issue: means a proposal submitted to the people at an election for their approval or rejection, including but not limited to an initiative, referendum, proposed constitutional amendment, recall question, school levy question, bond issue question, or ballot question. See Montana Code 13-1-101
  • Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
  • Random-sample audit: means an audit involving a manual count of ballots from designated races and ballot issues in precincts selected through a random process as provided in 13-17-503 and 13-17-510. See Montana Code 13-1-101
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
  • Vote-counting machine: means an individual piece of equipment used to automatically tabulate votes. See Montana Code 13-17-502

(2)The county audit committee shall manually count the votes for the random-sample audit as follows:

(a)One member shall read the ballot while the remaining members shall each record on an official tally sheet the number of valid votes cast for each of the selected offices and the ballot issue.

(b)(i) After the vote is complete, the tally sheets of the members recording the votes must be compared.

(ii)If the tallies match, the county audit committee shall compare the manual count for the selected offices and the ballot issue to the vote-counting machine count for the selected offices and the ballot issue.

(iii)If the tallies do not match, the count must be conducted again as provided in this subsection (2) until the tallies match.

(c)(i) If the manual count and the vote-counting machine totals match, the county audit committee shall certify the results to the county election administrator and the secretary of state.

(ii)If the manual count and the vote-counting machine totals do not match, the county audit committee shall follow the procedures established in 13-17-507.

(3)The audit process must be public.