Last Updated on August 6, 2023, 3:00 AM | Published: July 9, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (State Capitol) — With last week’s release of results from the latest round of statewide election audits, the Oklahoma State Election Board has once again confirmed the accuracy of reported numbers and is once again hoping to quell accusations of widespread manipulation or error in state elections.
The public release covers the complete audit findings for statewide elections on February 14th, March 7th, April 4th, and June 13th of this year, including the hotly contested election for State Question 820 concerning the legalization of recreational marijuana.
The audits were conducted according to a 2019 law authorizing post-election audits and recounts to help ensure and maintain election security.
But Election Board officials hope the public release of results will have the added benefit of heading off the kind of rampant conspiracy theories and distrust surrounding elections that have stoked tensions nationwide.
“It is unfortunate that we continue to hear some outlandish claims that Oklahoma elections are being determined by computer algorithms, ‘phantom’ voters, and other such nonsense,” said Oklahoma State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax in a press statement accompanying the audit results.
“But the facts tell a different story: Oklahoma has one of the most accurate voting systems in the entire nation.”
Confirmed Results
Since the passage of the 2019 legislation granting the State Election Board Secretary power to authorize and initiate these post-election audits, this is only the second such round of audits to be completed and entered into the public record.
“We’re still kind of in that learning stage, because it is a very new process,” said State Election Board Public Information Officer Misha Mohr.
“We’ve gone through this procedure, we’ve thought of ways to make it a little bit more efficient and to get those post-election audits posted to our website as quickly as possible so that we do have those results available soon after those audits are conducted.”
“Oklahoma has one of the most accurate voting systems in the entire nation.”
Paul Ziriax, Sec. of the Okla Election Board
Results for the four statewide elections audited in this round show no discrepancies or inaccuracies in the reported and certified numbers in any of the counties randomly selected for auditing.
Last year’s post-election audits – including the November general election and gubernatorial race that saw well over 1 million votes cast statewide – saw only three minor discrepancies in over 100 audited counties, each relating to individual single ballots that would not have affected the election outcomes in any way.
Safety and Security
This newly implemented post-election audit process is part of a push to not only bolster confidence and trust in the electoral process, but to help protect the poll workers and officials in charge of facilitating and monitoring elections.
Legislation such as Senate Bill 481 has been introduced to increase the penalty for harassing, threatening, or intimidating election officials.
This comes in addition to the audits and publicly available reports, in an effort to illustrate the veracity of results and the lack of widespread manipulation in state elections.
“It is unfortunate that even here in the State of Oklahoma, election officials have been doxed, harassed and even threatened by people who believe false claims about the conduct and administration of elections,” Ziriax said in a separate prepared statement.
“As one of those who has been doxed and threatened, I can tell you that election officials across this state are very grateful to the legislature and the Governor for taking these threats seriously and enacting this legislation to deter and punish such actions in the future,” said Ziriax.
Combating Misinformation
This troubling behavior both in Oklahoma and nationwide has resulted from misinformation and outright lies regarding corruption and manipulation of elections, spread primarily by former President Trump and conservatively biased media in the wake of the largely mail-in 2020 presidential election.
Though the legislation to authorize regular post-election audits in Oklahoma was already approved by the time those false claims began to spread, officials hope that the transparency and availability of the process can help to combat baseless accusations and lies about “stolen” elections.
Results for the four statewide elections audited in this round show no discrepancies or inaccuracies….
“This process would have come forth regardless of some of the crazy theories we’ve heard and some of those outlandish things that we’ve seen going around on social media,” Mohr said.
“You’re not going to convince everyone that elections are safe and secure,” Mohr continued. “But, we’re going to certainly do everything we can to provide them the information they need to be educated and to have those results and information out there for them.”
The complete reports containing results and findings of all post-election audits in Oklahoma for 2022 and 2023 can be found at oklahoma.gov/elections under the “Security & Integrity” tab, where visitors can also read about election security procedures and full information and verification of the state’s voting machines.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
