For Immediate Release: Tuesday,
October 14, 2008
pdf press
release
full report
Contact: Luther Weeks 860-918-2115 or
Luther@CTVotersCount.org
Coalition Releases Audit Report on August
Primary:
Raises concerns with audit credibility and
potential problems for November post-election audit
Hartford,
Connecticut
–Today, the Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition
released a report summarizing the observations of 46 citizen
observers at 27 state-mandated post-election audits
conducted by local officials following the August primary
election. In its 3rd observation report,
the Coalition noted continuing improvements in procedures
and compliance, while finding additional areas of concern.
Coalition spokesperson Luther Weeks noted, “Asking more questions,
focusing on the chain-of-custody, we found potential risks
to the integrity of ballots counted in the audits.
This further reduces the credibility of the audit
results. Democracy depends on the integrity and credibility
of the election process.
Election credibility requires procedures that are
effective, enforced, and transparent”
From the report:
Despite continued
improvements to the published procedures, the August
post-election audit observations do not inspire increased
confidence… the lack of standards and detailed guidance, and
the lack of consistency, reliability, and transparency in
the conduct of the audit continues… We find potential risks
to the integrity of and confidence in the reported results
of post-election audits based on the lack of uniformly
secure ballot storage and access.
Looking forward, we doubt the current ad-hoc counting
procedures used by most municipalities will prove sufficient
to accurately and efficiently count ballots considering the
expected volume in the November 2008 election
Cheryl Dunson, Vice President Public Issues of the League of Women
voters of
Connecticut
stated that, “We are pleased that several of our
recommendations from two previous observation reports have
been implemented and that the Secretary of the State and
local election officials continue to improve the process.”
Andy Sauer, Executive Director, Common Cause Connecticut said, “After
three post-election audits of optical scan voting and five
public hearings in the last year, it is imperative that the
legislature act in the next session to strengthen
post-election audits and close gaps in Connecticut election
law based on experience”.
Observers came from the membership ranks of the coalition partners
-- The League of Women Voters of Connecticut, The
Connecticut Citizen Action Group, Common Cause
Connecticut, and Connecticut Voters
Count. The coalition’s reports are available online at:
http://www.CTElectionAudit.org
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