[CAVO] Auditing electronic voting

[Lawrence Rosen]

Sometime after an election, before the votes are certified or perhaps only
after a candidate has raised an express challenge to the posted results,
electronic voting systems will need to be audited by an independent agency.

 

I was once chair of a federal credit union whose tens of thousands of
accounts needed to be audited every year. That required sampling and
confirmation procedures by a federal auditor. That required intelligent
comparisons between cash deposited and cash distributed. And random credit
union members were asked specifically - by the auditor - to verify their
bank balances by comparing the credit union's records to their own. (This is
like randomly comparing a voter's printed ballot with the vote actually
counted.) The auditors had account numbers to work with, not personal names
or individual wealth/poverty data. Even we board members didn't have access
to individual account data.

 

This was a required process. It was local, in our own offices. It was
relatively brief every year. And it was thorough and reassuring to everyone.
But it wasn't rocket science.

 

/Larry

 

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