Maryland will audit all votes cast in general election

Maryland will conduct a post-election audit of all of the votes cast in the general election.

The Maryland State Board of Elections has hired a Boston-based company, Clear Ballot, to conduct a performance audit of the paper ballot system the state adopted this year. State election officials said the audit is not the same as a recount.

According to Clear Ballot, Maryland will become the first state to audit 100 percent of the ballots cast in an election. The company said it would audit about 3 million votes over a two-day period.

Nikki Baines Charlson, the state's deputy elections administrator, said the audit will retabulate results from photographs taken of each ballot as they are fed into optical scanners at the state's polling stations. She said the paper ballots will not be counted as part of the audit.

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