Election results: risk-limiting audits.

Existing law requires an elections official, during the official canvass of an election in which a voting system is used, to conduct a public manual tally of the ballots cast in 1% of the precincts chosen at random by the elections official, as specified. Existing law, operative until January 1, 2021, authorizes the use of risk-limiting audits in lieu of this 1% manual tally beginning with the March 3, 2020, statewide primary election. Under this law, a participating county is required to perform a partial risk-limiting audit of each cross-jurisdictional contest. This bill would extend the authority to use risk-limiting audits until January 1, 2023. The bill would authorize a county to choose to perform the risk-limiting audit in only some of the contests within the county. The bill would remove the requirement to perform a partial risk-limiting audit of each cross-jurisdictional contest. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.