This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

The final, official results from Boulder County’s 2018 General Election are available now at www.BoulderCountyVotes.org.

The final official results include the Statement of Votes, a document that shows precinct-by-precinct results for every issue on Boulder County ballots this year. The Statement of Votes will be forwarded to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office as part of the election close out process.

On Saturday, November 17, elections staff and the appointed Audit Board (10 members of the Democratic Party and 10 members of the Republican Party) successfully completed the risk-limiting audit, a post-election test that helps ensure the accuracy of election results and provides the public with evidence that election outcomes reflect the votes cast on their ballots. To perform a risk-limiting audit, you must pull the exact random lot of ballots the Secretary of State assigns to your county. To ensure vote tabulation was accurate, the process reviews how a ballot’s votes were captured at the time it was processed by comparing the actual ballots with their digital tallies captured at the time of processing.

Back in 2008, Boulder County was the first county in the nation to conduct a large scale primitive version of a risk-limiting audit as part of the election process and led the legislative initiative to require Colorado counties to perform risk-limiting audits beginning in 2017. Colorado is the first state now using a statewide risk-limiting audit in the nation. While Boulder County and all Colorado counties have always conducted post-election audits for over a decade, a risk-limiting audit is considered the “gold standard” test of election results. A final report on the audit was issued to the Boulder County Canvass Board for verification prior to election certification.

Elections staff also completed the reconciliation process. This process provides the evidence for the Canvass Board to certify that the number of votes counted is equal to or less than the number of ballots cast and that the number of ballots cast is equal to or less than the number of eligible voters. The Reconciliation Report has also been posted online.

This year’s Canvass Board consisted of Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall, and two party representatives from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Pat Feeser and Dan Gould represented the Democratic Party. Cathy Jarrett and Charlie Winn represented the Republican Party.

This afternoon the Clerk, the Democratic Party members of the Boulder County Canvass Board and Republican Party member Charlie Winn, certified the election results. The second Republican Party member of the Canvass Board, Cathy Jarrett, declined to sign the certification citing the desire for additional district-style level reports.

The canvass documents, including the audit report and reconciliation, along with the Statement of Votes are available at www.BoulderCountyVotes.org.

Longmont Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Report Released

Boulder County District Attorney's office released the investigation report on the Longmont officer-involved shooting that took place on September 20, 2018 at Regal Theater. To read the report in full click here.

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SVVSD Board of Education Meeting for Nov. 28

The Board of Education meeting scheduled for Nov. 28 has been canceled. The next scheduled meeting will be Dec. 12. Currently, the agenda for this meeting has not been released. Click here to learn more about upcoming school board events.

Opinion: Judi Atwood–Children First of the Rockies

Colorado Gives Day is just around the corner and I urge you not to contribute to Children First of the Rockies which is registered with our State as a 501c and a non-profit however its clearly taking donations from local law firms and giving preferred treatment to parents of the law firms that contribute to this 501c. Read this opinion piece.

Video: Longmont City Council – Tuesday, Nov. 27

Watch the video footage from the Nov. 27 Longmont City Council meeting.