Irwin County board plans May 30 audit of 11 contests, discusses forming Audit Special Committee

The Irwin County Board of Elections & Registrations on May 24 agreed to conduct a post-election audit of May 21 ballots on Thursday, May 30, following debate over scope and logistics.

Election Supervisor Ethan Compton said the county was originally going to audit two contests present on every ballot but that members of the Irwin County Republican Party requested a full audit of every contest, including unopposed candidates and straw-poll questions. Staff raised chain-of-custody and security concerns and noted a full ballot audit would take at least three days; the board instead agreed to audit opposed contests and to exclude straw-poll questions, yielding nine contests. Compton said recent state elections-law changes signed May 6 require auditing the top contest on each ballot statewide, which added two contests and brought the planned audit to 11 contests per ballot.

Compton told the board that each county political party will provide eight auditors for the work and that the Irwin County Commission offered use of its meeting room to avoid transporting voted ballots offsite. Given the expanded scope, the board set the audit hours as 9 a.m.–noon and 2 p.m.–4 p.m. on May 30, with staff estimating completion shortly after 3 p.m. if work proceeds efficiently.

Supervisor Compton asked the board to explore creating an Audit Special Committee over the next two months to maintain a roster of party-approved volunteer auditors and to coordinate desired audit scope with both parties. Vice-Chair Hutchinson said she is concerned the county lacks the required number of volunteers to sustain such a committee and expressed opposition to forming it as proposed. No formal vote to create a special committee was taken at the meeting.

Compton also entered into the record that the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office congratulated Irwin County for being the first county in Georgia to completely tally and report its results on election night. The board agreed staff should consider efficient deployment and placement of additional Poll Pads for increased traffic expected in November.