After several years of our asking, Secretary Thomas uses 10-sided die for drawing. This is much more fair, transparent, and random than drawing slips from a barrel. The Secretary gets our applause for this change.
Here are the districts chosen, from the Press Release:
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This time there were a number of medium and large cities with recanvasses, exempt from the audit. So a higher percentage were chosen from the remaining towns. Also we believe Fairfield is exempt based on a highly publicized recanvass, so at least Suffield will be added from the alternates: <read>
This year’s drawing was different. Based on the law passed this year it finally included centrally counted absentee ballots, an item we have been requesting since 2008. We thank Secretary Merrill for initiating the change this year. Better late than never!
Yesterday we observed the Post-Election Audit Drawing by the Secretary of the State Denise Merrill. 38 districts in 31 municipalities will be audited by no later than December 4, 2020.
The Secretary’s Office is offering electronic auditing to municipalities, subject to scheduling limitations. Official Press Release <read>
Last week we observed the Post-Election Audit Drawing:
Press Release:
Primary Results to be Audited at Selected Polling Locations
A hand count of ballots from five percent of all polling places that use optical scanners to be matched against machine totals, which will affirm the integrity of the vote
HARTFORD- Secretary of the State Denise Merrill randomly selected voting precincts to have primary results audited following the August 11 primary…
After every general election and primary, Connecticut law requires a post-election audit. Such audits are intended to provide justified confidence in our elections, that errors were not made, and that machines have not been hacked. However, unless something is done, this year the audits will be by far the weakest, least credible since audits were initiated with the adoption of optical scanners in 2007.
It is critical that we fully audit the August primary so any flaws can be fixed prior to the November election.
Paper ballots are of little use unless we actually vote and then exploit those ballots to provide justified confidence in our elections.
On Wednesday, we observed the random drawing of districts for the post-election audit. Eight districts from Bridgeport were selected, demonstrating one of the downsides of using a raffle barrel for a random drawing – excessive correlation of adjacent districts placed in the barrel together. Almost one-third of the districts selected began with ‘B’.
Here is the list of selected districts as sent to election officials by the Secretary’s Office:<read>
On Thursday Deputy Secretary of the State Scott Bates selected 36 districts for the post-primary audit.<press release with selected districts>
Departing from past practice, the Official Audit Procedures, and the law as it has always been interpreted, the Deputy selected three statewide races from each party to be audited in their respective primaries and then selected only one party primary to be audited in each district. The Official Audit Procedures, and the law indicate that 5% of the districts in each primary be audited with a minimum of 20% of the races randomly selected by the municipal clerk from all races on each ballot.
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This morning we attended the Post-Primary-Election Audit Random Drawing of districts for audit. Eight were chosen along with four alternates.
We would have the drawing earlier, before the start of the audit period which begins fifteen days after the primary. That was a week ago. The late drawing is a little bothersome to us, but an unnecessary burden and unwelcome surprise for registrars.
A few municipalities conduct elections in May rather than November. We joined Deputy Secretary of the State Scott Bates, Assistant Secretary Peggy Reeves, and SOTS Office Interns for the drawing. Sadly, due to last year’s reduction in the audit, only one district will be audited.
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We strongly object to the official press release’s characterization of Connecticut’s Post-Election Audit as “Comprehensive”. A comprehensive audit would not exempt ballots from selection for audit, it would audit the totaling of votes, and include compliance audits of all aspects of the election such as checkin lists, voter roles, and ballot security.
CT Mirror Viewpoints
Last week, without public notice, seven Connecticut municipalities conducted electronic “audits” under the guidance of the UConn Center for Voting Technology and the Secretary of the State’s Office, using the Audit Station developed by the Voter Center.
There is a science of election audits. Machine-assisted audits can offer efficiency and ease of use, but any audit process needs to be transparent and provide for independent public verification of the results.
