Burlington County

Following the 2024 election, Burlington County partnered with Clear Ballot to conduct an automated, independent audit pilot. To test the speed and accuracy of the Clear Ballot system, Burlington County's elections team ran more than 8,000 ballots through one of Clear Ballot's high speed scanners, matching the number of ballots that the team had previously hand counted as part of their current post-election audit process.

During their pilot, Burlington County was able to verify the results of their more than 8,000 ballots in six hours, compared to the 17 hours it had taken the county to manually tally the same ballots. While their hand count audit required eight teams of four workers, for a total of 32 people, over the course of those two days, their Clear Ballot audit only required a team of three staff. For the county, the time and cost savings were immediately clear.

"For us, if you look at the time savings, the cost savings for paying additional staff, the accuracy of the system, and the integrity - avoiding human errors in the hand-eye recount and getting a fully accurate result - it was extremely beneficial," mentioned Burlington County Board of Elections Chairperson Joseph Dugan. Coming off of an extremely busy election season, county officials also appreciated the system's ability to streamline their process and turn their audit, a large task that required coordinating with dozens of people, into something more manageable.

"We have all had the experience post-election when people have been working really hard and are really tired, but there's still a lot being done after election day. To have this manual audit come off the plate and be a better and more accurate experience is great," said Chairperson Dugan.