DAVENPORT, Iowa — The Scott County Auditor's Office is confident in its election night results, following an audit of one Davenport precinct Thursday afternoon.
Counting ballots, one by one, was Thursday's task for the Scott County Auditor's Office.
"We’ve conducted two of them so far and the results of both of those audits have come out the same," said Roland Caldwell, the operations manager for the Scott County Auditor's Office. Those previous audits happened in 2018 and 2019.
The post-election audit is required under Iowa state law. The Iowa Secretary of State's office selects which precincts are to be audited each year.
"In general elections, it’s required by law. It can also be held for any other election," Caldwell said.
Those other elections could include a gubernatorial race or city council race if the presidential race is not on the ballot that year, Caldwell said.
Because Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz was not at the audit Thursday, Caldwell was responsible for overseeing the 2020 post-election audit.
"We then turn it over to the audit board and they separate the ballots by candidates and then count the number of votes on each of those ballots to make sure that they match with what occurred on election night," Caldwell said.
The audit board consisted of three people: two republicans and one democrat, according to Moritz in a phone interview on Thursday.
The audit board spent 90 minutes hand-counting each ballot from Davenport precinct 11, which was the precinct chosen by the Secretary of State's office for this year's audit in Scott County.
The audit board only counted the votes for the presidential race. In total, the board counted 301 ballots, and the results came back the same as in years past.
"There was no surprise," Caldwell said. "The results were exactly as occurred on election night."
Caldwell also said Thursday's audit does not certify any results as official.
"What it is, is a guarantee at least in part that our election equipment is working correctly," Caldwell said.
That, Caldwell hopes, gives voters peace of mind that their vote was counted.