Harrisburg, PA – Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced today he officially certified the final results of the 2023 Primary Election yesterday afternoon.
"All 67 counties finished their canvass and certified their results to me, and, after carefully reviewing and compiling the counties' results, I have formally certified the outcome of the primary election," Schmidt said. "Thank you to all county election officials, who not only worked hard on Primary Election Day to ensure a safe, secure, and fair election but also spent the last few weeks diligently verifying that all eligible votes were correctly counted."
After each election but before certification of their results, county election officials conduct two reviews to confirm the results accurately reflect the outcome of every contest, Schmidt explained.
"To ensure the results they certified to me were accurate, county election officials conducted a statutorily required 2% statistical recount and participated in the second statewide risk-limiting audit, or RLA," Schmidt said. "Because of their efforts and hard work, Pennsylvanians can feel confident in the accuracy and integrity of the commonwealth's electoral system."
For the 2% statistical recount, each county reviews a random sample of at least 2% of the ballots cast or 2,000 ballots, whichever number is fewer.
For the RLA, election officials from 14 counties hand-tallied randomly selected ballot batches, then compared those vote totals to the original machine counts in the Democratic primary race for Pennsylvania Supreme Court. That race was randomly selected for audit by department officials on May 22. On May 25, the department livestreamed the process that allows for the random selection of ballot batches that are then audited. The RLA found no discrepancies between the hand tally and the machine count.
For more information on how Pennsylvania's post-election audits help ensure the accuracy and integrity of our elections, visit vote.pa.gov.