An Audit Proposal that is Simpler but Effective

A New Election Audit Proposal that is Simpler but Effective

Hello Everyone,

Since it seems to be too complex and not politically viable to require individual calculations of the audit amount for each race, here is a proposal for election audits for auditing 20%, 10%, or 2% of vote counts based on the margins between candidates:

Here is what I suggest:

Margin | Audit Rate | Minimum # of Counts Audited
0 to 1% | 20% | 80 or 100% of vote counts whichever is smallest

Margin | Audit Rate | Minimum # of Counts Audited
1+% to 5% | 10% | 40 or 100% of vote counts whichever is smallest

Margin | Audit Rate | Minimum # of Counts Audited
5+% to 100% | 2% | 8 or 100% of vote counts whichever is smallest

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The minimum audit amounts are very important to keep the probability for detection high in smaller races and smaller jurisdictions with fewer total counts, where the recommended audit percentages of 20%, 10%, and 2% might not otherwise result in a large enough sample size to ensure detecting outcome-altering vote miscount.

Here is a link to our easy-to-use spreadsheet to check the probabilities of using the above suggested audit rates and minimum amounts.

http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/paper-audits/HowManyToAudit.xls

Kathy Dopp
http://electionarchive.org
National Election Data Archive Dedicated to Accurately Counting Elections

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