The Virginia Department of Elections’ (ELECT) Commissioner Christopher Piper announced March 2 that Virginia’s elections administrators have successfully completed the state’s risk-limiting audit (RLA) for the November 2020 Election.

According to Appomattox General Registrar Patricia Morton, the town participated in the audit.

Morton also said that the town was officially notified that the Primary Election for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the Democratic Party for the offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, Virginia House of Delegates and local offices will be Tuesday, June 8.

She said there will definitely be a Democratic Primary for all state offices and maybe one for state delegate. If the Republicans have more than one candidate for state delegate, there will be a dual primary June 8 similar to what happened last June.

The Republican Party will hold a convention May 8 to nominate candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

As for the results of the state’s risk-limiting audit, the state set a risk measurement of under 0.1, and the audit results fell well under that measurement.

The audit confirmed that the original count of the votes accurately portrayed the winners of the election in Virginia for United States president and senate.

For the presidential race the audit came in at 0.0000065117 and for the senate race, the audit came in at 0.0000424172. The risk measurement represents the possibility a mistake could be found in the audit large enough to reverse the election result.

Pursuant to Va. Code §24.2-671.1, ELECT is required to coordinate an annual post-election RLA of ballot scanner machines used in the Commonwealth of Virginia. ELECT collaborated with VotingWorks, a non-profit organization that assists with RLAs across the country. All 133 localities in Virginia participated in the audit.

“The success of Virginia’s first statewide audit reaffirms our dedication to ensuring secure and accurate elections for our voters,” said Christopher Piper, Virginia’s commissioner of elections. “I am proud of the hard work that our election administrators do in the commonwealth, and this audit further exemplifies the integrity and validity of the 2020 November General Election results.”

The statewide audit provided opportunities for all localities and the public to participate. The audit results were reported March 2 during a meeting with Virginia’s general registrars and electoral board members. Audit results may be found at www.elections.virginia.gov. Video recordings of this meeting and previous RLA meetings are available on the website.

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