Oklahoma election officials confirm accuracy of recent elections

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — It’s Election Day for some in Oklahoma and while the national debate over election integrity continues, state officials want residents to know their votes are secure.

A post-election audit conducted after Oklahoma’s June Primary Elections and the state’s voting system was a 100% match of the certified election results.

“Some people like to tell folks that algorithms determine the outcome of elections, not your actual votes. I mean, that’s a bunch of bunk in Oklahoma. We have proven through our audits and our recounts that our voting devices are counting those paper ballots very accurately,” said Paul Ziriax, state election board secretary.

Ziriax directed 76 of the 77 counties to conduct manual tabulation audits of ballots in randomly-selected races across the state.

Carter County did not have to do this audit because they county election board had already completed a countywide, candidate-requested recount of the sheriff’s primary.

That recount matched the unofficial results in that particular race.

One Oklahoma voter tells News 4 that the post-election audit is a relief.

“I don’t want to vote for someone and my vote is useless, you know? Anything you do you want to make sure it’s worthwhile,” said Judy Gaddis.

Another voter expressing a similar feeling.

“It makes me feel good. You know, we live in a place where there’s people who are honest and, you know, that’s the main thing is honesty,” said Mary Minnis.

Post-election audits were first authorized by the Legislature in 2019, before voting integrity became a hot-topic.

“We were actually preparing to implement those in 2020, but the pandemic hit,” said Ziriax.

Audit reports were implemented on a regular basis starting in 2022.

“I wish that we hadn’t had a pandemic, don’t we all, and that we could have implemented these because I think that may have been able to head off, you know, some of the folks even in Oklahoma, that want to believe things that aren’t true about our elections,” said Ziriax.

The post-election audit report is now available on the State Election Board’s website.

Ziriax noted that recent independent reviews of Oklahoma’s election system have shown it to be safe and secure – including a Governor’s Task Force study and an analysis by the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency .

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