May 25, 2023 - Harrisburg, PA
Ensuring that our elections are conducted freely and fairly, and that every eligible voter can make their voice heard, are top priorities of the Shapiro Administration. To continue Governor Shapiro's commitment to transparency about election administration in the Commonwealth, the Department of State livestreamed the process to randomly select batches of ballots that will be audited as part of Pennsylvania's second statewide risk-limiting audit (RLA)."National experts consider RLAs the highest standard of comprehensive election audits," Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said. "The RLA process provides a statistically sound method for confirming, with a high degree of confidence, that the reported outcome of the audited election is correct."During the livestream, seven department volunteers took turns rolling 10-sided dice. The numbers they rolled generated a random 20-digit "seed number." That seed number will be used to determine which batches of ballots counties will audit over the next few days.