The McIntosh County Election Board has announced that a post-election audit of the March 7 Special Election and the April 4 Board of Education Election has been authorized by State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax (pronounced ZEER-ICKS).

The audits will be held Tuesday, May 23, beginning at 9 a.m. at the McIntosh County Election Board and are open to the public.

State law defines a postelection audit as “a manual or electronic examination of a limited number of ballots by a secretary of a county election board or other authorized election officials following an election.”

According to state law, audits of election results may be authorized for the purpose of maintaining the security of the election system by ensuring that voting devices and software used in a particular election correctly tabulated the votes.

Audit results cannot be used to change certified election results.

Information, including a complete list of counties, ballot types, and races being audited, can be found on the State Election Board website at https://oklahoma.gov/elections. html. The results of the post-election tabulation audit will be posted on the State Election Board website once the audits are complete and a final report has been issued.