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.
Kathy Dopp
National Election Data Archive Dedicated to Accurately Counting Elections