Post-election audits must be done by hand under the first bill to make it to the House floor this year.
State legislators passed a law last year requiring a random audit of each primary and general election in Idaho.
Counties are randomly drawn, with the requirement that small and larger counties alike are chosen.
But the law never specified how audits should be conducted.
Despite that, Secretary of State Phil McGrane said state officials did previously use hand recounts.
“This is just affirming the current practice,” said McGrane. “It was done previously by directive of [former Secretary of State Lawerence Denney]. That directive will continue.”
Votes are typically scanned and counted by a machine, which can occasionally misread faintly filled-in bubbles, or make other errors.
Last year’s audit found results in five of eight counties identically matched the recount. Nine total ballots among the other three counties were improperly recorded.
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