Title of Regulation: 1VAC20-60. Election Administration (amending 1VAC20-60-80).

Statutory Authority: § 24.2-103 of the Code of Virginia.

Effective Date: March 31, 2023.

Agency Contact: Claire Scott, Policy Analyst, Department of Elections, Washington Building, 1100 Bank Street, 1st Floor, Richmond, VA 23219, telephone (804) 864-8901, or email claire.scott@elections.virginia.gov.

Summary:

Pursuant to Chapters 443 and 444 of the 2022 Acts of Assembly, the amendments (i) clarify what qualifies as a contested election that may be audited by a local electoral board and establish the process for a local electoral board to apply for multiple contested races and (ii) require the local electoral board to choose a risk-limiting audit method by a majority vote and to apply the same risk-limiting audit method to all contested races for which an audit is applied.

1VAC20-60-80. Request for a risk-limiting audit for a contested race within a jurisdiction.

A. For purposes of this section, "contested race" means a contested race wholly contained within the jurisdiction of the county or city for which an electoral board requesting a risk-limiting audit serves.

B. Pursuant to § 24.2-671.2 D of the Code of Virginia, a local electoral board shall follow the process in this section subsection to request a risk-limiting audit of a contested race within its jurisdiction:

1. At the public canvass meeting following the election, an electoral board may elect to request an a risk-limiting audit of a contested race, or multiple contested races, within its jurisdiction (risk-limiting audit) by a majority vote.

2. If a question to request a risk-limiting audit achieves a majority vote, an electoral board must complete Form submit a completed SBE 671.2(D) Request for Risk-Limiting Audit Form to request State Board of Elections (SBE) approval of the audit. If requesting audits of multiple contested races, an electoral board must submit a completed SBE 671.2(D) Request for Risk-Limiting Audit Form for each race. If risk-limiting audits are requested for multiple contested races, the electoral board must request the same method of conducting the audit for each race.

3. The SBE will grant a request for a risk-limiting audit within a locality's jurisdiction of a contested race if:

a. The submitted Form SBE 671.2(D) Request for Risk-Limiting Audit Form contains sufficient information for the SBE to determine that the local electoral board members cast a majority vote in favor of the audit request;

b. The submitted SBE-671.2(D) Request for Risk-Limiting Audit Form contains sufficient information for the SBE to determine the method of conducting the risk-limiting audit chosen by a majority vote of the electoral board, and, in the event that risk-limiting audits are requested for multiple contested races, the requested method of conducting the risk-limiting audit is the same for each race;

c. The submitted Form SBE 671.2(D) Request for Risk-Limiting Audit Form contains sufficient information for the SBE to determine which contested races are subject to the requested audit and that those contested races are in fact wholly contained within the jurisdiction of the city or county for which the local electoral board serves;

c. d. The SBE concludes that the audit is permissible under § 24.2-671.2 of the Code of Virginia and all other relevant provisions of law; and

d. The following conditions are met:

(1) e. The margin of the candidate with the most votes and the second most votes is equal to or greater than 1.0%; and (2) The number of estimated ballots to be sampled exceeds 15% of the total number of ballots cast.

4. Upon granting an electoral board's request for a risk-limiting audit, the SBE may grant an extension not to exceed two weeks of the local electoral board's certification deadline pursuant to § 24.2-671 of the Code of Virginia if necessary for the conduct of the audit.