Harrisburg, PA – Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced Thursday that he officially certified the final results of the 2023 Primary Election.
“All 67 counties finished their canvass and certified their results to me, and, after carefully reviewing and compiling the counties’ results, I have formally certified the outcome of the primary election,” Schmidt said. “Thank you to all county election officials, who not only worked hard on Primary Election Day to ensure a safe, secure, and fair election but also spent the last few weeks diligently verifying that all eligible votes were correctly counted.”
County election officials conduct two reviews to confirm the results accurately reflect the outcome of every contest, Schmidt explained.
“To ensure the results they certified to me were accurate, county election officials conducted a statutorily required 2% statistical recount and participated in the second statewide risk-limiting audit, or RLA,” said Schmidt. “Because of their efforts and hard work, Pennsylvanians can feel confident in the accuracy and integrity of the commonwealth’s electoral system.”
For the 2% statistical recount, each county reviews a random sample of at least 2% of the ballots cast or 2,000 ballots, whichever number is fewer.
Officials from 14 different counties hand-tallied randomly selected ballot batches for the RLA. They then compared vote totals to the original machine counts in the Democratic primary race for Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Elections officials said that particular race was randomly selected for audit on May 22.
On May 25, the department livestreamed the process that allows for the random selection of ballot batches that are then audited. The RLA found no discrepancies between the hand tally and the machine count.
For more information on how Pennsylvania’s post-election audits help ensure the accuracy and integrity of our elections, visit vote.pa.gov