Election Law - Postelection Tabulation Audits - Risk-Limiting Audits

HB 426 changes Maryland's post-election audit process by replacing mandatory manual audits with risk-limiting audits for statewide elections. It requires the State Board of Elections, working with local election boards, to conduct a risk-limiting audit after every statewide election - auditing at least one statewide contest and one local contest per county. The bill repeals the previous requirement for manual audits of paper ballots and allows (but does not mandate) automated software audits. This directly affects the State Board of Elections and local election boards, shifting their post-election verification process to a statistically-based method focused on detecting discrepancies in key contests.