(ATLANTA) – A pilot post-election audit Monday confirmed the outcomes of the presidential preference primaries in Fulton County, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced today.

“This procedure demonstrates once again the validity of the results produced by Georgia’s new secure paper-ballot system,” he said. “Auditing returns can now be a regular part of elections because we have paper ballots. That gives Georgians confidence that their votes are counted fairly and accurately.”

The June 9 primary was the first statewide use of Georgia’s new secure paper-ballot system. Its use was piloted in last fall’s municipal elections and in two special legislative elections held in January and February. Audits of municipal voting and one of the special elections showed the system produced accurate results in both cases.

Monday’s audit was a risk-limiting audit. It consisted of manually examining a random sample of paper ballots in a selected race to ensure the correct result was reported by the election equipment. Both parties’ presidential primary contests were audited, with the Democratic race driving the audit due to its smaller margin of victory.

Officials from the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections conducted the audit along established procedures agreed upon by national voting-integrity experts.

Assisting the Secretary of State election staff and Fulton officials were experts from VotingWorks, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, national organization with extensive experience with election audits across the country.

A Georgia law enacted last year requires audits after all state elections beginning in November 2020. Raffensperger initiated Monday’s audit to provide voters with confidence in this year’s election and trial the process and procedures in preparation for future elections. He also asked the State Election Board to enact a rule requiring public notice of the audits.

The Georgia Secretary of State is the state’s chief election officer and has the mission to help ensure secure and accurate elections. County election officials run the actual elections and handle voter registration.

Georgia is a leader in election innovation and access with automatic voter registration through the Department of Driver Services, three weeks of early voting – including a Saturday, and no-excuse absentee voting. It is a top state in the number of motor voter registrations and experienced record registration and a record increase in turnout in the last election cycle.