Montgomery County conducted its second post-election audit Thursday, under a new law designed to monitor and protect election processes. According to Auditor Stephanie Burke, the audit was successful.

Iowa law allows the Secretary of State choose, at random, one precinct in each Iowa county to be audited. County auditors must then supervise a hand count of the ballots from that precinct and compare the results to the voting machine count from election night.

In Montgomery County, the Secretary of State chose Precinct 7, which votes at the Villisca Community Building. 161 ballots were cast on election night and the results matched to the hand count done on Thursday. Burke said “The hand count shows that our machines are accurately counting ballots. All voters deserve to have confidence that their vote has been counted properly.”

Two precinct election officials, representing the two major political parties, conducted the count under the supervision of Elections Clerk, Beth Peterson, and Auditor Stephanie Burke. As required in the law, the Auditor’s Office notified the county chairs of both of the two major political parties. The process was witnessed by a representative of the Montgomery County Democrats.

Questions about the post-election audit and other election matters may be directed to the Montgomery County Auditor’s office at 712-623-5127.