Idaho officials would audit ballots and recount votes

County clerks must wait to release results until all voting places in Idaho close when a county race or question is in both time zones. This rule covers county clerks releasing election results to the public on election day. If no race or ballot question in the county is in both time zones, the clerk may release results after all voting places in that county close. The rule applies on election day, after voting places close.

After county election counts are complete, the secretary of state must order audits of selected paper ballots. Audits may cover federal elections, the governor's race, the closest statewide office and ballot question races, and one legislative race in a county. Audits must include a hand count and comparison with reported results. Precincts must be chosen by lot at an open public meeting; the selection generally cannot exceed five percent of the county's precincts or one precinct, whichever is greater. Multiple precincts may be chosen if they contain fewer than 2,100 ballots. For counties that store early or absentee ballots by day, batch, legislative district, or tabulation machine and publicly report results that way before precinct selection, the secretary may choose those ballot groups instead. The selected ballots must equal or exceed the number of early or absentee ballots in the selected precincts. The secretary may order more audits based on audit findings and must limit them to the types of problems found. The state pays audit costs, including county clerks' costs. The secretary must set audit procedures at least 60 days before the election and report audit results within the time set by those procedures.

County clerks must compare a random sample of ballots by hand and machine, then use the stated count differences to decide how to recount the remaining ballots. These procedures cover statewide and federal races and measures, and other races and ballot measures. For statewide and federal races and statewide measures, the sample must cover at least two precincts in each county. For other races and measures, it must cover at least 100 ballots or five percent of ballots cast, whichever is greater, distributed by county where applicable. For statewide and federal races and statewide measures, if the hand and machine counts differ by 0.25 percent or less, the remaining ballots are recounted by machine; otherwise, they are recounted by hand. For other races and measures, machine recounting applies if the difference is less than one percent or two votes, whichever is greater; otherwise, the remaining ballots are recounted by hand. Voting-machine ballots with overvotes or undervotes must remain unchanged for recounts.

Election staff must review an overvote on a paper ballot as if counting it by hand for that race or question, and may correct it to reflect the voter's intent. The review and possible correction apply to overvotes on marked paper ballots processed by a vote tally system. A voter at a polling place must have the ability to adjudicate their ballot in the case of an overvote. If needed to carry out the voter's intent, a clerk may use tally-system software to correct the overvote or produce a duplicate ballot; the original must be preserved with a note. Voting-machine ballots with overvotes or undervotes must remain unchanged for recounts.