Here's how your vote gets counted in NC and how the Board of Elections secures the process

When you feed your ballot into the machine at your polling place, do you ever wonder what happens next? Here's a look at how your vote is counted and how the Board of Elections keeps elections safe, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.

How are votes counted?

Votes are counted by ballot scanners, also called tabulators, that once a voter feeds their ballot in, it reads and records the voter's selections on a paper results tape and on a USB stick. All North Carolina counties use paper ballots.

After Election Day is over, a process called canvassing occurs. Canvassing includes the measures the Board of Elections takes to ensure accuracy in the vote counting process and ultimately determine official election results.

The Board of Elections also performs several audits in the process of checking for accuracy and finality.

One type of audit, the voter history audit, checks for fraud, ballot stuffing and tampering by comparing the number of authorization to vote forms, a form you fill out at the polling location, with the number of ballots cast.

Another audit -- the sample audit -- compares voting equipment's counts to hand counts to ensure the machines worked correctly. Two voting sites in each county get randomly selected to participate. This process is called hand-to-eye count, and it is open to the public.

For a full explanation of each type of audit, visit the State Board of Elections website.

More: Election 2024: How do I find what's on my ballot in North Carolina?

Did my vote count?

Your vote was counted once inserted into the tabulator, but it takes time for your voter history to be updated online. You can search for your voting history through the voter search tool on the Board of Elections website.

What about provisional ballots?

During canvassing, Board of Elections workers research provisional ballots to decide if they are eligible to be counted.

To track the status of a provisional ballot, use the Provisional Search tool on the Board of Elections website.

No matter how close an election is, every eligible provisional ballot is counted.

More: Election 2024: What to know about polling locations in North Carolina

What about mail-in absentee ballots?

To track the status of a mail-in ballot, sign up for BallotTrax on the Board of Elections website. You can even sign up for alerts and it can notify you if any issues arise with your ballot.

How do they keep the election secure?

Aside from canvassing and the audits conducted, there a few other ways elections are protected from fraud, interception or mistakes.

The technology used in ballot counting has to pass logic and acceptance testing to make sure machines accurately code and count ballots. After machines have passed, they are locked and sealed with tamper-evident seals. For a look into the process, watch a video showing the logic and accuracy testing process on the Board of Elections YouTube. The tested machines are stored in a locked room until used for voting.

The machines also require "a unique physical equipment key to turn the equipment on and to access any media port on the equipment," according to the Board of Elections website. "Only authorized individuals may have keys and security codes to open voting machines."

Additionally, voting equipment is not allowed to be connected to the internet so that there is less risk of interference. Voting machines do not contain modem chips.

See what specific vote counting system your county uses on Election Day on the Board of Elections website.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: How are votes counted in North Carolina elections?