COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County's Voter Registration and Elections office has conducted a hand count audit following election day.
The county goes back and double checks some ballots to make sure they match what was loaded in the machine.
County Elections Director Travis Alexander says audits are not uncommon after an election, and they help ensure confidence in the system.
“The State Election Commission does an audit for all the major elections, so when we had our primary elections, we had an audit. Obviously for this general election, we have an audit," Alexander said.
“So, they will specially tell you which race to look at, so we are auditing just that race just to make sure that the candidates that were selected and tabulated are the same ones that will come out on the hand count audit," Alexander added.
Workers were hand selected by the State Election Commission for the audit.
As far as what is left to be counted, Alexander says some votes still need to be recorded before results are finalized. Among those are provisional ballots from voters who were allowed to cast ballots, even if they didn’t show up on the voter roll at a precinct. Officials will confirm voter eligibility before recording those votes.
“Those provisional ballots will be presented to the board, and then that process will go through, and then those votes will be added the unofficial count that we have now, and then we will give an official count and send that to State Election Commission," he said.
Votes will be certified at an official certification meeting at 11:30 a.m. on Friday morning.