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A dozen counties were chosen at random by the Attorney General’s office on Tuesday for the post-general election audits that are required under state law.

Deputy Attorney General Victor Maddox performed the drawing, in which the names of all 120 Kentucky counties were placed on slips of paper which were placed in a miniature bourbon barrel and pulled out one at a time, under the watchful eye of Greg Wolf, commissioner of the Department of Criminal Investigations.

The 12 counties who will be subjects of the post-election audits are: Fayette, Fleming, Grayson, Greenup, Hancock, Johnson, Martin, Meade, Mercer, Oldham, Perry and Webster.

Wolf explained what they will be looking for in the audits, which are performed in the county clerks’ offices.

“We look at all their records, all the information the clerks normally compile for an election,” Wolf said.  “We get all their records, then we interview people involved in the process.  We interview local county officials.  It’s just basically a checks and balances system. Anything that came up that might not be on their reports.”

After the audits are complete, the reports are presented to each county’s grand jury.

Wolf says it’s difficult to establish a timeline on when the audits will be completed.  “Obviously bigger counties take longer to get the information together. By the time we get all of our inquiries done, get them presented to grand juries, getting all the information, we’re just finishing up from the last round of inquiries we did from the primary.

He added, the 12 counties audited after the May primary election turned up no issues.

In other election-related news in Frankfort on Tuesday, the State Board of Elections certified the election results, meaning all races are now official.  The winners are:

• Governor/Lt. Governor– Andy Beshear and Jacqueline Coleman.
• Attorney General– Russell Coleman.
• Secretary of State– Michael Adams.
• Auditor of Public Accounts– Allison Ball.
• State Treasurer—Mark Metcalf.
• Commissioner of Agriculture—Johnathan Shell.