Pennsylvania certified its 2025 election results after counties completed two audits confirming accuracy.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt certified Pennsylvania’s 2025 municipal election results on Monday after two required audits were performed that confirmed the accuracy of the reported vote totals.

Schmidt said he certified the Nov. 4 results only after all 67 counties submitted final tallies and verified through the audits that their counts were accurate. 

“After reviewing the certified results from all 67 counties, I have formally certified the outcome of the Nov. 4 municipal election,” Schmidt said. 

He thanked county officials, saying they “spent the last few weeks diligently counting eligible votes and confirming that Pennsylvania held yet another free, fair, safe and secure election.”

Statewide turnout reached roughly 42.45% of registered voters, an increase from 36.77% in the 2023 municipal election, the Pa. Department of State said in a statement.

Schmidt said counties again carried out both a statutory recount and a risk-limiting audit before certification. 

“Both audits confirmed the accuracy of the reported results, again showing Pennsylvanians that they can have confidence in the accuracy and integrity of our electoral system,” he said.

The audits use different methods to assess the same question: whether counties reported accurate results. 

The first is a statistical recount which examines a random sample of 2% of ballots cast or 2,000 ballots, whichever is fewer. All counties conduct this recount after every election.

The second audit is a risk-limiting audit (RLA), which involves randomly selected counties hand-tallying votes for a single, randomly chosen statewide contest. For this election, the department livestreamed the selection of the contest and later livestreamed the generation of a 20-digit random number used to determine which counties would audit which batches of ballots.

Auditors in nine counties reviewed 4,343 ballots by hand and confirmed that the reported outcome of the retention contest for Superior Court Judge Alice Beck Dubow was correct, the department said.

The counties selected for the RLA were Allegheny, Bucks, Centre, Chester, Erie, Luzerne, Northampton, Philadelphia and Wayne.

Chester County — which had to take emergency steps on Election Day after poll book printing errors forced some voters to vote provisionally — certified its own election results on Friday. An investigation into the issue remains ongoing.

More information on Pennsylvania’s election audit process is available at vote.pa.gov/audits. Official returns for all statewide races are posted on the department’s website.