Ellsworth and the state’s 104 other counties will have a post election audit of votes the day after the Nov. 5 general election.

At Monday’s meeting of the Ellsworth County commissioners, Shelly Vopat, county clerk, said the audit is required by a new state statute, because of the voting public’s distrust of electronic voting machines.

She has appointed a bipartisan board of Peggy Svaty, Sue Arensman and Andrea Skucius.

After the general election, she will randomly select two contested races out of a hat. If those races affect several precincts, Vopat will randomly select two precincts out of a hat.

The board will then manually count the votes from the contested race randomly selected by Vopat. Those results will be compared to the election machine results counted locally on election night.

Vopat said counties that conducted primary elections this year have already gone through the process.

“There was only one vote off, and that was in Sedgwick County,” she said. “They knew exactly which ballot it was.”

The audit becomes the official result.

Vopat said she and her two employees received training in the process by representatives of the Kansas Secretary of State’s office during a meeting in Salina.

“I have no other guidelines, but I am suppose to train them (the board),” she said.

Vopat plans to do the random drawing of the contested races at 10 a.m. on Nov. 6, with the board beginning their count of the ballots at 5 p.m. that same day in the commissioners’ meeting room at the Ellsworth County courthouse.

“I can’t actively be involved, but I can sit outside in case they have any questions,” Vopat said.