Kentucky

State Summary Kentucky has two separate laws that suggest two separate and independent post-election audit processes take place. The first is Kentucky Revised Statute 117.383, “Rules and Regulations,” Subsection (8), which requires a manual recount of precincts representing between 3% and 5% of the total ballots cast in each election. See: http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/ebook/part5/documents/383.pdf. Additional provisions for this audit are quite limited. While the statute requires the State Board of Elections to develop rules and regulations for audits, at present, there are no rules regarding audits contained in the relevant portions of the Kentucky Administrative Regulations. (See Title 31, State Board of Elections: http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/kar/TITLE031.HTM.) The second is Statute 15.243, “ Enforcement of all election laws -- Duties of Attorney General...”, Subsection (3), which requires the Attorney General conduct an “independent inquiry” in at least 5% of the state's counties. See: http://www.lrc.ky.gov/krs/015-00/243.PDF. While this might be understood as an investigation, and not an audit, the Attorney General's office clearly refers to it as a post-election audit. See, for instance, their selection of counties for auditing after the November 2010 election: http://migration.kentucky.gov/newsroom/ag/postelectionauditsnov2010.htm. While the Attorney General's audit is well publicized, we could find no such similar public information regarding the audits under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Elections. If you know of relevant information or reports regarding these audits, please email info@ceimn.org. We address both audits in our description below.