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.
many of the audits, as observed, leave us uncertain as to whether an error or fraud would have been detected in an audited race where we were not present to observe. We also question the security of the chain of custody to protect the integrity of ballots before the audits and to protect the integrity of ballots and tabulators after the audits such that further audits and investigations could effectively be performed.
Many of the audits, as observed, leave us uncertain as to whether an error or fraud would have been detected in an audited race in this election…The coalition recommends that the Secretary of the State provide local elections officials with specific directions for auditing and reporting, make a full public report of all post-election audit results, and establish clear criteria for further investigation of audit discrepancies.
