Reviewing Ford County’s Ballot Reconciliation Process During the 2024 General Election [March 2025]

The Ford County election office administers elections in Ford County, Kansas. This audit was a follow up to a 2024 audit that reviewed Ford County’s ballot reconciliation process for the 2024 primary election. In that audit, we found poll workers at 1 polling site did not follow the proper processes by allowing a poll worker to vote without signing the poll book as required by state law. For this audit we reviewed Ford County's ballot reconciliation process for the 2024 general election and found that Ford County’s ballot reconciliation process ensured the number of voted ballots reconciled with the number of voters in the 2024 general election. However, the county did not ensure all poll books were signed and ballots were sealed as state law requires. Ford County’s poll book logs, ballot reconciliation sheets, and result tapes reconciled with each other for regular voters and provisional voters in the 2024 general election, but 2 provisional voters did not sign the provisional poll book before voting as state law requires. We also found a voted provisional ballot that wasn’t sealed as statutorily required. However, we think the ballot was counted in the election results because the ballots cast reconciled with poll book signatures and ballot reconciliation sheets.