[2] The county was organized December 13, 1836, and named for Colonel James Hunter Audrain of the War of 1812 and who later was elected to the state legislature.

A vast portion of the Clark-area Amish community stands within Audrain County limits.

Joint Communications is specifically responsible for receiving incoming 9-1-1 emergency telephone calls, and dispatching the appropriate personnel; receiving other non-emergency telephone calls and dispatching, routing, or messaging those calls to the correct personnel; entering information into, and inquiring information from the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System (MULES) and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) crime databases; maintaining a detailed computerized log of requests received and dispatched; and keeping current on city and county geography, so that members may assist responding personnel in locating addresses.

Joint Communications is located at 1854 East Liberty Street in Vandiver Village, and serves a coverage area of 697 square miles (1,800 km2) with a population of nearly 26,000 people.

[14] In August 2008, Joint Communications Director Chris Hardin began the process of implementing Phase II wireless service to the Audrain County E-911 system.

This process was expected to take several months, but after Phase II wireless service was implemented Joint Communications would be able to locate a caller when they called 911 from a cellular telephone.

Joint Communications became Wireless Phase II with Sprint Nextel on July 15, 2009, meaning that Joint Communications is now Wireless Phase II with all of the cellular phone providers officially serving Audrain County.

Audrain County, along with the rest of the state of Missouri, is represented in the U.S. Senate by Josh Hawley (R-Columbia) and Roy Blunt (R-Strafford).

Like most rural areas throughout Missouri, voters in Audrain County generally adhere to socially and culturally conservative principles which tend to influence their Republican leanings, at least on the state and national levels.

On the Democratic side, former Vice President Joe Biden (D-Delaware) both won statewide and carried Audrain County by a wide margin.

Incumbent President Donald Trump (R-Florida) faced a primary challenge from former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, but won both Audrain County and statewide by large margins.

Businessman Donald Trump (R-New York) narrowly won the state overall, but Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) carried a plurality of the vote in Audrain County.

On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-New York) both won statewide and carried Audrain County by a small margin.

The 2012 Missouri Republican Presidential Primary's results were nonbinding on the state's national convention delegates.

Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania), who finished first in the state at large, but eventually lost the nomination to former Governor Mitt Romney (R-Massachusetts).

Incumbent President Barack Obama easily won the Missouri Democratic Primary and renomination.

In 2008, the Missouri Republican Presidential Primary was closely contested, with Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) prevailing and eventually winning the nomination.

Then-Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) received more votes than any candidate from either party in Audrain County during the 2008 presidential primary.

Despite initial reports that Clinton had won Missouri, Barack Obama (D-Illinois), also a Senator at the time, narrowly defeated her statewide and later became that year's Democratic nominee, going on to win the presidency.