All 67 Pennsylvania counties must audit their results after each election to ensure accuracy.

The first check they do is the “statistical sample,” more commonly called the “2% audit.” This is a legally required recount of 2% of the votes cast in a county, or 2,000 votes total if that number is smaller, as is often the case. The ballots are selected at random.

Counties are using a different method than they originally used to count ballots during the audit. Some do this using vote tabulation machines other than those used on Election Day, while others count ballots by hand.

Counties must complete these recounts by the deadline to certify their election results, which this year is Nov. 25. Some counties have already completed the audit, while others will do so in the next two weeks.

This is not the only audit that counties perform. As a result of a 2018 settlement in lawsuit filed by Jill SteinGreen Party presidential candidate, Pennsylvania now holds statewide limited risk audits.

With the 2% audit, an election administrator could choose to examine only ballots from a few precincts. While that review could uncover a problem with those specific precincts or with votes cast there, it won’t reveal much about the election as a whole.

A risk limiting audit is designed to verify the margin of a race and confirm that the reported winner actually won. The process begins when Pennsylvania Department of State workers roll a set of 10-sided dice to generate a random number, which is fed into an algorithm that determines which ballots counties should examine. That process ensures that no one knows in advance which votes will be recounted, making it impossible to manipulate the result.

If a race has a narrower margin, the algorithm requires more batches of ballots to be reviewed to verify the result. If the margin is wider, fewer lots will need to be checked.

The races that will be included in this year’s risk-limiting audit will be announced Wednesday and the roll of the dice will take place on Friday, according to a State Department spokesperson. Counties where a lot is selected will have until the certification deadline of Nov. 25 to conduct the recount.

When a race goes to a recount

The presidential race in Pennsylvania was decided by a margin large enough that the outcome was evident shortly after Election Day. The same cannot be said for the US Senate race.

While the Associated Press called the race for Republican Dave McCormick based on an analysis of the votes remaining to be counted (including provisional ballots cast when a voter’s eligibility is in doubt) incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey had not conceded as of Tuesday.

As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, McCormick had 48.93% of the vote to Casey’s 48.5%, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State report. website.

Under Pennsylvania law, a recount is automatically activated when the result of a race falls within 0.5%. Pennsylvania’s top elections official, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, will order the recount by Nov. 14, unless the trailing candidate requests that the process not move forward before noon the day before. The recount must then begin on November 20 and the results must be sent to the clerk by November 27.

However, recounts rarely change the outcome of a race.

FairVote, a nonprofit organization that advocates for ranked-choice voting, analyzed nearly 7,000 races across the state between 2000 and 2023. It found 36 recounts in that time, only three of which resulted in a change of outcome.

“All three changes occurred when the initial margin was less than 0.06% of all votes cast for the top two candidates,” the report says.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, there have been seven statewide recounts since the 0.5% rule went into effect in 2004. None changed who won.

Three voters in a precinct can also request a recount if they believe fraud or error occurred. This count only applies to votes cast in the electoral district, which is the smallest electoral district, usually a few hundred voters and sometimes no larger than a city block.

While there were fears that such recounts would be used as a weapon this year and delay certification of resultsso far that has not happened.