On Nov. 20, the Colorado Department of State announced that the 2025 statewide postelection Risk Limiting Audit (RLA) has been completed.
The 2025 audit has confirmed that Coloradans’ ballots were counted accurately and that voting equipment worked as it should have.
“Colorado’s bipartisan risk-limiting audit is complete and has confirmed that the 2025 Coordinated Election results were counted accurately. For eight years, the RLA has shown that Colorado’s election model is accurate and secure, and that Colorado voters’ voices have been heard,” said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
After every statewide election, the Department of State works with county clerks to conduct the audit. The RLA establishes a statistical level of certainty that ballots were counted according to voters’ intent and tabulating equipment worked correctly.
The RLA has been conducted in every Colorado election since the 2017 coordinated election. The audit has never found a discrepancy that was a result of the voting system not working as intended.
The steps to certifying the 2025 Coordinated Election are:
• After Election Day, county clerks continued processing and counting ballots until Nov. 14.
• On Nov. 17, the Department of State conducted the public meeting to establish the random seed number for the post-election audit — which was entered into a pseudo-random number generator to determine the ballots that will be audited — to begin the audit. The audit included a statewide contest as well as a target contest in each county that uses voting machines.
• Colorado counties completed the statewide postelection audit Nov. 19.
• Each county canvass board will convene to approve the final tally of ballots cast and tabulated by Nov. 26.
After canvass reports are submitted, counties can begin any mandated or requested recounts; mandatory recounts must be completed by Dec. 5.
Once any recounts have concluded, the 2025 coordinated election results can be certified by the secretary of state.
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