A post-election audit is defined as:

• A. An examination of the electoral process before an election to verify readiness.
• B. An examination of the electoral process after an election to verify the accuracy of final tallies.
• C. A process to train poll workers.
• D. A review of campaign ads for compliance.

Answer: (B)

Post-election audits are checks conducted after votes have been cast and tallied to confirm that the reported results match the ballots cast. The goal is to verify the final tallies and detect any discrepancies that could indicate errors or manipulation. These audits may involve comparing a sample of paper ballots to the electronic totals, performing hand counts of a subset of ballots, or applying risk-limiting methods to quantify and limit the chance that an incorrect outcome goes undetected. They help build public confidence in the election and provide a clear path to correct results if issues are found. This is different from activities conducted before an election, which focus on readiness and equipment testing, and from tasks like training poll workers or reviewing campaign ads, which are not about verifying final vote tallies.