Division of Elections Florida Department of State

Reconciliation Audit – is an activity to ascertain the validity, reliability and assessment of a system’s accounting control. Reconciliation – is an activity to compare and match information to uncover any possible discrepancies. Key is to provide consistent data: Voter history Election results Concern with Inconsistent Data (mixed messages – data doesn’t always match) in: Web page results Certified results Over and undervote report (No valid vote) Voter History Reconciliation is not an audit

Reconciliation: verifying ballot count DOE recommends one or more methods for verifying election results and verifying ballot count; Look at number of physical ballots – ballot count or ballot set count (multiple page ballots); Bottom line: How many voters cast a ballot and how many ballots do I have; One method to use “independent” resources for the reconciliation, such as the use of logs to determine: Absentee ballots returned Absentee ballots not accepted Provisional ballots submitted Provisional ballots accepted Does voter history match voters who voted (tabulator’s public count plus voters whose ballots were not accepted) Recognize the difficulty with multi-page ballots – utilize best practices to mitigate discrepancies.

Verification of ballot count Acquire “independent” information to facilitate the reconciliation process – “logs” or information will identify potential or misplaced ballots or potential error” – reconcile or correct the difference Use this log information to compile the ballot count: Verify total absentee ballots returned based on the count of accepted and unaccepted absentee ballots Verify total overseas absentee ballots returned based on the count of accepted and unaccepted overseas ballots Verify total provisional ballots accepted based on the count of accepted and unaccepted provisional ballots Verify EV and ED voter history count based on poll register and tabulator’s public count and check with ballots issued, spoiled ballots, and remainders (ballots not used)

Reconciliation - races Reconcile the election using one or more races (such as US Senator and Governor) Step 1: Verify EMS summary results for total write-ins based on the count of accepted and unaccepted write-ins (with adjustment for an overvote that has the same candidate selected as a write-in, where applicable) Step 2: Segregate EV, ED, AB, Overseas and Provisional counts from EMS group summary results for a given race Step 3: Use the count from the independent information to compare the EMS group counts for EV, ED, AB, Overseas and Provisionals. Verify that the total ballot count matches voter history. Reconcile the counts and if needed, correct incorrect data or provide documentation for the difference.