The Verified Voting Foundation has written a letter to Secretary of the State, Denise Merrill, supporting expanded audits based on Connecticut’s expansion of absentee ballots: <read> Their support was based on the Citizen Audit’s recent Op-Ed. in the CTMirror.

Verified Voting writes concerning the exclusion of absentee ballots from Connecticut’s post-election audit. Connecticut made the right decision for election integrity when the state passed legislation in 2007 mandating post-election audits. Christopher Krebs, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, recently testified that “the ability to conduct post-election audits is critical to establishing the integrity of the election.” Unfortunately, the anticipated massive surge of absentee ballots in 2020 threatens the credibility of the audit. As you know, Connecticut generally exempts absentee ballots, along with hand-counted ballots and election day registration ballots, from its audit. We urge you to broaden the audit this year to include absentee ballots…

An audit’s credibility depends on whether the audit sample is reasonably representative of all ballots cast. Excluding absentee ballots is undesirable even when they comprise less than ten percent of ballots cast…

We understand the pressures facing state and local election officials this year. Fortunately, as Luther Weeks of Connecticut Citizen Election Audit has pointed out, Connecticut’s machine-assisted audit system can facilitate conducting audits that include absentee ballots…

An increase in absentee voting inevitably will raise questions about ballot handling, adjudication, and security as well as tabulation. Accordingly, we agree with Weeks that an independent audit of all absentee ballot processes, culminating in tabulation, should take place.

Read the entire letter here: <read>

Citizens Audit Report:
Watchdog Group Finds Faults with Post-Election Audit
Independent Observation and Analysis of Connecticut’s 2019 Post-Election Audit

From the Press Release:

Again, the Secretary of the State’s Office failed to require local officials to conduct audits to satisfy the spirit of the law. As a result, voters cannot have confidence in the accuracy of election results.

The public and candidates expect, and the Secretary of the State should require, that local election officials organize audits and produce accurate, complete audit reports. The public should expect the Secretary of the State’s Office to take the lead in ensuring that each audit report is complete:

• 41% of official audit reports from registrars were incomplete.
• Weaknesses in ballot chain-of-custody and security procedures remain. Ballot security is necessary to assure ballots were not tampered with between the election and the municipal audit counting sessions.
• Use of electronic audits that are not publicly verifiable.

Officials made strides in the following areas:

• Officials demonstrated strides toward a publicly verifiable Machine-Assisted Post-Election Audit.
• Only two districts attributed differences in vote and ballot counts to Human Error. Fewer large differences were reported, increasing our confidence in officials and scanners.

“With National concerns with elections risks the public deserves better audits. Audits that provide justified credibility in our elections.”, said Luther Weeks, Executive Director of the Citizen Audit, adding “With a small additional investment on the UConn Audit Station and its associated procedures, which have been developed with public funds.”

<Press Release .pdf> <Full Report pdf> <Detail data/municipal reports>

Citizens Audit Report:
After 10 years, 18 post-election audits, and 800 local audit counting sessions, serious flaws continue 

From the Press Release:

Post-election vote audits of the November 2017 elections continue to fail to meet basic audit standards. They again undermine confidence in the accuracy of our elections, concludes the non-partisan Connecticut Citizen Election Audit.

Among the group’s concerns:

• 41% of reports required to be submitted to the Secretary of the State by registrars were incomplete or were not submitted. The Secretary’s Office failed to follow up on those reports.
• Weaknesses in ballot chain-of-custody and security.
• Continued use of flawed electronic audit procedures that are not publicly verifiable.

On the bright side, developments related to the electronic audit point the way to improvement:

• The Secretary of the State’s Office and UConn Voter Center solicited feedback on improving the electronic audits.
• Write-in counting issues and failure to separate ballots as required were clearly identified by the electronic audit and observed by the Secretary of the State’s Office.

Luther Weeks, Executive Director of the Citizen Audit said, “We are frustrated with so little improvement after 18 statewide audits over 10 years. Citizens deserve better. Yet, if the Secretary of the State’s Office follows up on these problems and pursues publicly verifiable electronic audits, progress can be achieved in the near term.”

<Press Release .pdf> <Full Report pdf> <Detail data/municipal reports>