Montgomery County audit confirms election results

National concerns about election integrity were heightened before, during and after this year’s presidential election and continue to be fanned by President Donald Trump and his attorneys claiming fraud in several states — not including Ohio — cost him the election.

“This is the best ran election that we’ve ever had in Montgomery County and the state of Ohio,” said Steve Harsman, deputy director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections. “This (audit) is kind of the final piece of this presidential election.”

Ohio elections boards conduct and audit after every general election. For this week’s audit, 1,200 voted ballots were randomly selected from the races for president, Ohio Supreme Court and Montgomery County Clerk of Courts. The goal is to double-check enough ballots to statistically confirm that the reported winner is the winner of each race and the loser is the loser.

Credit: Josh Sweigart

Credit: Josh Sweigart

Starting Wednesday and ending Thursday, election workers manually counted the ballots. One Democrat and one Republican sat at each table, wearing masks with a clear partition between them. They separated the ballots into separate stacks for each candidate before counting them. Then then traded spaces and checked each other’s work.

“The conclusion of today’s (audit) shows the Montgomery County Board of Elections correctly tabulated and certified the true results of the 2020 General Election,” Harsman said via email after the audit concluded Thursday. “Therefore, the 2020 Presidential Election in Montgomery County is officially completed!”

Greene County started its post-election audit this week and will finish it next week, according to elections officials there.

LaRose said the state has put in place backup measures and plans such as not waiting until after the election to count absentee ballots that helped the election run smoothly.

“For the last two decades, every time Ohio holds a presidential election the whole world is looking over our shoulders, and that’s not the case in these other states,” LaRose said. “They’re just not used to national attention when they hold elections. Ohio is, and as a result of that, we’ve upped our game over the last two decades.”