Mercer County among first in state to implement new post-election audits

A Western Pennsylvania county will be among the first in the state to have an enhanced audit of its election results.

Mercer and Philadelphia counties both bought new voting systems that will be used for the first time in November.

With concerns over election security increasing in recent years, the new voting systems purchased in recent weeks will use mathematically proven sampling to verify election results.

“Mercer County is honored to have been asked by the Department of State to be on the ground floor of what is expected to be the future of post-election audits in Pennsylvania,” said Director of Elections Jeff Greenburg. “While we are certainly aware there are many hurdles to overcome before this is implemented statewide, we recognize how important this can be to strengthen our voters’ trust and faith in elections.”

Earlier this month, the Mercer County Board of Elections approved the use of paper ballots with Election System & Software DS200 optical scanners, along with ES&S Express Vote accessible ballot-marking devices.

Last April, the Department of State informed counties that they must select new voting systems that provide a paper record and meet higher standards of security, auditability and accessibility no later than December 31 2019, and must implement those systems no later than the 2020 primary election.