The Stephens County Board of Elections and Registration completed a risk-limiting audit on May 29, 2026, with every one of the 989 ballots matching the electronic totals exactly. Officials selected the U.S. Senate Republican primary and Georgia Governor Democratic primary races for review through a dice roll conducted by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office the previous day. The result strengthens the record of accurate tabulation in a county that has conducted similar checks before.
Audit Process Delivered Exact Verification
Workers performed the manual count at the Historic Courthouse in Toccoa. The event remained open to the public throughout the day. Auditors compared paper ballots against the machine-reported totals for the two targeted contests and found no discrepancies.
The 100 percent match came after the state selected Stephens County as one of the jurisdictions required to conduct the review. State law directs the Secretary of State’s office to choose races and counties through a random process each cycle. This year’s dice roll landed on the Senate Republican primary and the Democratic primary for governor.
State Law Mandates Regular Checks
Georgia requires risk-limiting audits under O.C.G.A. 21-2-498 for any election that includes state or federal offices. The statute establishes a statewide schedule that covers multiple counties after each primary and general election. Stephens County’s review formed one piece of that larger effort.
Local officials followed the same procedures used in prior cycles. The process compares a statistically determined sample of ballots by hand against the certified machine count. A perfect match confirms the electronic results within the required risk limit for the sampled races.
