Idaho state audit confirms Ada County primary election results

A random audit of Ada County primary election ballots on Wednesday confirmed the results reported on the night of the May 19 primary election, officials with the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office said. 

During the audit, elections officials from the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office and students from Boise State University’s accounting program hand-counted paper ballots used in the 2026 gubernatorial primary election in randomly selected precincts. The auditors compared the results of Wednesday’s hand count with results that counties reported after polls closed May 19 in order to confirm the election results.  

“Really, this week is about transparency and building voter confidence,” McGrane said in an interview after the audit was complete. 

Elections Supervisor Megan Hill, with the Secretary of State’s Office, said Wednesday’s audit matched Ada County’s election night results. A more detailed report on the audit results will be presented to the Idaho Board of Canvassers on Tuesday, Hill said. 

“One of the biggest things is… coming through and doing these audits – hand counting the results, and going through this really meticulous detailed process – and being able to validate that what they reported on election night is exactly what happened,” McGrane said. 

Why did officials audit Ada County primary election results?

The election audit was required under Senate Bill 1274, which the Idaho Legislature passed unanimously in 2022 and Gov. Brad Little signed into law. 

Altogether, state election officials are auditing election results in eight randomly-selected Idaho counties this week. 

State officials selected the counties subject to participating in the audit during a random drawing May 29 at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise. 

During Wednesday’s audit in Ada County, state elections officials from the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office and Boise State accounting students broke into teams of four inside the elections warehouse at the Ada County Elections Office. 

Once the audit began at 9 a.m., one auditor from each group picked up the paper ballots from the primary election one at a time and read the vote in the governor’s race aloud. As each vote was read aloud, two Boise State University accounting students at each table logged the counts on separate tally sheets they each kept. 

“We always highlight one of the great security features in Idaho’s elections is that we have paper ballots, and the paper ballot is the official record,” McGrane said. “This is part of that process. It’s not just having the paper, but going back and double checking. This just heightens all of it, and really should reassure voters.”

The audit included a selection of Ada County precincts, as well as batches of absentee ballots and a batch of early voting ballots. 

Over the course of the roughly 2.5 hour audit, deputies from the Ada County Sheriff’s Office oversaw the entire process. 

The post-election audits were open to members of the public and news media and livestreamed online. 

It was not immediately clear how much the audits cost. Last week, McGrane told the Idaho Capital Sun he was not sure how much the audits would cost this year because much of the cost would come through staff travel across the state to complete the audits. McGrane said he did anticipate staff would have to use the state plan in order to efficiently travel across Idaho to conduct the audits.

A fiscal note attached to the Idaho Legislature’s bill requiring the audits estimated it would not cost more than $50,000 per primary and general election to conduct the audits.  

Are Idaho officials auditing any more election results

The audit in Ada County was the fifth of eight audits that state officials plan. 

On Monday, officials conducted post-election audits in Gooding, Lemhi and Franklin counties. On Tuesday, officials conducted an audit of primary election results in Canyon County. 

Looking ahead, officials plan to audit Butte County primary election results at 9 a.m. Thursday and Power County election results at approximately 2 p.m. Thursday. 

On Friday, officials will conduct the final post-election audit in Owyhee County at 9 a.m.

Idaho’s primary election results won’t become official until after the Idaho Board of Canvassers meets June 9 to certify the election results.