Special to Iredell Free News

The day after the May 17 primary the State Board of Elections will randomly select precincts, early voting sites, and absentee-by-mail ballots to be counted by hand in each county to confirm accuracy of the results counted by machine.

The random selection of precincts to be audited in each county will take place at 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 18, at te State Board of Elections office in Raleigh. Facemasks are required to enter the State Board of Elections office.

The selection will be broadcast via Facebook Live on the State Board of Elections’ Facebook page.

Under North Carolina law, all ballots are counted by certified and tested machines.

The sample audit count, also required by state law, helps ensure the reliability of election results tabulated by a machine. Bipartisan teams at each county board of elections conduct hand-to-eye counts of all ballots in the randomly selected precincts and compare the results with the results of the machine counts. The process verifies the accuracy of the machine counts.