Risk-Limiting Audits
In Washington, each county conducts a post-election audit after every election. A risk-limiting audit (RLA) uses statistics to confirm election outcomes. An RLA helps verify that the apparent winner of an election actually won.
In a risk-limiting audit, ballots are randomly selected for review. Ballots are hand-tallied one by one until enough have been sampled to confirm that the correct winner was found the first time. If the winner won by a lot of votes, the sample needed to confirm the outcome may be quite small; if the race was close, the audit will examine more ballots.
The risk limit for statewide risk-limiting audits (RLAs) is 5%.
The risk limit for county-level ballot comparison RLAs is 5%.
The risk limit for county-level ballot polling RLAs is 10%.
2024 General Election - Statewide Risk-Limiting Audit
| Counties | Audit Date | Target Contest | Audit Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 11/19/2024 | Selection on 11/8/2024, 3pm |
Random seed dice roll and contest selection: 11/8/2024, 3pm: https://youtube.com/live/PD7yalpCf0w?feature=share
Archived
2024 February Special Election
RLA software certification
Arlo Approval for Use - Certification.pdf
Additional resources
RCW 29A.60.185 - Audit of results.
WAC Chapter 434-261 - Sections 114-119 on risk-limiting audit procedures.
risklimitingaudits.org - Additional resources and RLA academic papers